Patients clogging up A&E with hiccups, sore throats and niggles

This represents more than 2% of all attendances during that four-month period

I understand that increased numbers is not a linear response, it feels a bit alarmist to say this is "clogging up".

Guess what fuckers, they dont want to be there any more than you want them there. Fix the gp system and it'll all magically disappear.

Shocking no one wants to try and have a conversation about their health by shouting over the counter to a pharmacist in a packed shop as they vaguely listen with one ear while packing medication.

Shocking no one wants to try and have a conversation about their health by shouting over the counter to a pharmacist in a packed shop as they vaguely listen with one ear while packing medication.
You can ask for a consultation with the pharmacist, which should be in a private side room. Of course, you do have to wait a bit if they're busy dispensing, but it'll almost always be quicker than the wait in A&E.
Agree entirely that the real solution is to fix the GP appointments farce, which in most places is still a choice between wardialling at 8am for an urgent triage appointment or waiting weeks for a non-urgent appointment by which time you've recovered or deteriorated to the point of visiting A&E anyway.
Would you say we should nationalise GPs? Would that help?
- I would say yes, or at least there's no reason that a doctor has to run a business in order for a GP surgery to exist. They are medical practices, not small business managers.
- Not necessarily. It could also be done by requiring humane appointments systems in the GP contracts.
- 😭

While it certainly seems like a bunch of idiots taking the piss - the reality is that our GP system is in utter shambles, and has essentially forced people into using A&E as an intermediate.

Think about it. Besides pensioners and SAHPs, who actually has the time to sit by the phone at 8am in the morning and call the split second the GP opens for just a chance of seeing them that day at a time that is most likely going to be during your work day - meaning you'll need to get permission just to go!

Oh, and almost no GP has an option to book appointments in advance, and those that do often have them weeks in advance.

So what exactly are you supposed to do?? Fight on the phone every day, possibly for multiple days on end, or wait so long for an advance booking appointment that you may very well end up needing to go to A&E anyways!

The only other option that has recently opened up is going to your pharmacist, but they're already busy enough as is, and will likely end up buggered the same way if we don't fix our GP system first.

Don’t forget the other option that started appearing during COVID: having to send a message to your GP via their surgery’s website, as if you’re making a customer support query.
And of course they never read them properly, reply with something either generic or useless, and then make you restart the whole process to ask any follow-up questions.
It's now a requirement to be able to book appointments online I believe?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjed4qvzjeyo
- Yeah, good luck with that. GP businesses ignore this requirement widely, the Care Boards are too dysfunctional to make them comply and the Department of Health seems too broken to fix the Care Boards. The new government seems to be starting to fix things, but it's like turning a charging mammoth around and the Treasury don't really want to give them enough pull anyway because the right-wing press are trying to scare financiers already about how much they're spending.
- It shouldn't be the individual surgeries organised this. It should be just part of the NHS website. We don't want 200,000 different websites all looking different all with slightly different options
I'm in the US, but you guys also have private sector GPs, and those guys have dramatically-shorter waiting times than the NHS ones, right?
- Technically, we only have private-sector GPs, but most work mainly under contract to the NHS. This is a consequence of how the NHS was created in the 1940s.
  Some offer private services too and some only do private work, but try it for yourself. Throw a pin in a map of England and try to make a private primary care appointment. You'll often end up in the nearest city or large town, maybe 30-50 miles away if not on the big city spine. Not convenient, and then there's the cost, often £150-200 for a first short appointment urgent package. Unless you're already subscribed to private healthcare at "from £11.32 to £127.89 per month" to quote one private mutual, it's not an option for most people (and why should it be needed if we've paid our National Insurance...)
- No, not really. And even if there are, you're not always guaranteed you can even get onboarded into a local GP surgery. So most people are stuck with whoever they are currently with.

111 doesn't help. I got an insect bite a while ago and had an allergic reaction to it so I rang 111. After working their way through their 'is this person actually dying' script they told me to go to A&E. I felt like a time-waster, but went along because that's what I'd been told to do. But, realistically, I could probably have waited until the following day and gone to see my GP.

I had an eye infection, just conjunctivitis, unpleasant but not serious. However 111 decided I was going blind and needed to go to get it looked at in person. I wish I just ignored them because at the end of the day I basically just got sent to the pharmacy in Tesco's.
- The doctor who saw me at A&E was pretty rude about 111 and said they pretty much just send everyone his way regardless of what’s wrong with them.

Canada has three options: Call the GP, but they will not see you for days-week*. Go to an urgent care facility, last option is go to ER.

But from the other side, all of those flu patients do not need to be there, there is no magic pill for flu. 99% are just sick with a virus and no MD can do anything about that. Perhaps we need chicken soup triage centres staffed by Jewish bubbes. It's your fault for not wearing a jacket.

because they know you will feel better in 3-5 days and will not need to show up.

Ah what better than hot chicken soup, the cure for all colds...
Most of England cut their urgent care clinics during the last Tory decade of cuts, so that option isn't here any more, mostly, which is why ERs are having to handle those patients, which they aren't intended for.
Maybe the flu itself can't be treated, but some of the complications can be lethal if not treated and that's what scares people into seeking help.

And what?

They partly solved that here (Ireland) by making A&E visits €100 but free if your GP sends you in, but it sounds from the other comments like your GP situation is dire over there. How bad is it?

That would only work if they fix the GP system. Otherwise people will just pay the fee and go anyway.
If you don't call between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. and 1 second you won't get an appointment the same day. Seriously that's not much of an over exaggeration, it really is that bad.
So if I break my arm, and am in incredible pain, I need to first pop by my GP to get a referral, or pay 100€ if I go straight to A&E ?
I feel like needing a referral to got to Accident and Emergencies kinda defeats the whole point of A&E....
- Ah if you break your arm you just head straight in. I'm not sure if a medical card (essentially free medical treatment for low income folks) works for that but I'd imagine it does.
  We had a lot of folks just arriving into A&E before because it was cheaper than going to their GP.
Free at the point of service was a founding principle for a reason. A levy doesnt fix the root cause of the issue, and produces a myriad of other problems.
Can you see your GP immediately? Like, when my partner has a seizure that lasts more than 2 minutes I'm meant to call an ambulance, but do you have to talk to your GP first?
Anyway, where I am in England it's pretty difficult to get a routine appointment. 2-3 week waiting times. I've been having panic attacks and couldn't speak to my doctor to get help; I completely understand why someone would go to A&E for help with this because you feel like you're dying and who else can help if your GP can't see you?
- Ah if someone has a seizure you're just calling an ambulance. I actually think it might be free if you do. I had to call one for my wife early in the year and I don't recall us paying (she badly needed it).