A&E or Doctor's appointment?

[UTH]

Did something to my knee skiing, and for good measure twisted it again last night, so I imagine I'll need it looked at

Not life or death urgent, so is my best route to queue for hours in A&E or go to the Doctor?

[Shaw Tarse]

Walk in centre?

[greygoose]

You probably need a physiotherapist rather than a doctor, see if your surgery has one.

[Boosted LS1]

Call 111. They can be really helpful.

[UTH]

CheesecakeRunner said:

UTH said:

Not life or death urgent,

So not an Accident or an Emergency then? You know the right thing to do.

Well, it very much is/was an accident? A skiing accident?

[Jamescrs]

Do you have a minor injuries place nearby? Usually operate in a similar way to an A&E in so far as they can x-ray and are walk in but are less busy as they don't deal with the emergency side of things

[Riley Blue]

UTH said:

CheesecakeRunner said:

UTH said:

Not life or death urgent,

So not an Accident or an Emergency then? You know the right thing to do.

Well, it very much is/was an accident? A skiing accident?

Phone 111. You may still end up in A&E but you might also be directed to a Walk-In Centre as it's not an emergency.

[UTH]

CheesecakeRunner said:

UTH said:

Well, it very much is/was an accident? A skiing accident?

Obviously not enough of an accident that you got yourself home from skiing and were confident enough of the knee to attempt something else that then result in injury.

Again, you know what ‘Accident’ means in the context of A&E.

For full disclosure.. I have little tolerance for people turning up at A&E for minor things at the moment. My father would have died from a heart attack a couple of months ago had I not physically barged past the huge queue at an A&E in Birmingham with him, and got him prompt treatment.

Several hours later when I came out, the same people were still standing in the queue. If you can stand in a queue for many hours, you don’t require the services of A&E.

A&E is for if something is literally falling off, or you’re dying IMO. It’s not there because you can’t be bothered to wait for a GP appointment.

Yes, I can sense some anger here! I wasn't for a minute suggesting I should go and waste anyone's time in the wrong place, hence asking. I haven't been to a doctor in about 15 years, and A&E once in the same period, so I'm afraid I am not at all clued up on the right place to go in various situations. Hence asking, so I DIDN'T end up in A&E when I should be there.

[UTH]

Riley Blue said:

UTH said:

CheesecakeRunner said:

UTH said:

Not life or death urgent,

So not an Accident or an Emergency then? You know the right thing to do.

Well, it very much is/was an accident? A skiing accident?

Phone 111. You may still end up in A&E but you might also be directed to a Walk-In Centre as it's not an emergency.

Cool, will call them on Monday then, sounds like they'll point me in the right direction.

[Armitage.Shanks]

CheesecakeRunner said:

UTH said:

Well, it very much is/was an accident? A skiing accident?

Obviously not enough of an accident that you got yourself home from skiing and were confident enough of the knee to attempt something else that then result in injury.

Again, you know what ‘Accident’ means in the context of A&E.

For full disclosure.. I have little tolerance for people turning up at A&E for minor things at the moment. My father would have died from a heart attack a couple of months ago had I not physically barged past the huge queue at an A&E in Birmingham with him, and got him prompt treatment.

Several hours later when I came out, the same people were still standing in the queue. If you can stand in a queue for many hours, you don’t require the services of A&E.

A&E is for if something is literally falling off, or you’re dying IMO. It’s not there because you can’t be bothered to wait for a GP appointment.

Well said. But I also think the problem is NHS111 who are so risk averse of giving the wrong advice they'd sooner pass the decision making onto someone else by sending them to A&E. To some extent it's not wholly their fault, it's a trait of Public Sector/Civil Service organisations who look to apportion blame on the lowest person in the management chain they can find rather than educate, advise and empower trained staff to make decisions.

[K77 CTR]

Urgent treatment centre if you've got one locally. Assuming it happened in the last 2 weeks. Any longer than that then GP.

[UTH]

K77 CTR said:

Urgent treatment centre if you've got one locally. Assuming it happened in the last 2 weeks. Any longer than that then GP.

A week ago today, so that could be an option

[skinnyman]

111 will be useless, they cannot accept responsibility for dodgy advice given over the phone, so 99% of the they just suggest A&E. I'd personally look at physio, all a GP will do is refer you to an NHS physio, which will likely taken 2-3mths to be seen, just book a private physio appointment

[UTH]

skinnyman said:

111 will be useless, they cannot accept responsibility for dodgy advice given over the phone, so 99% of the they just suggest A&E. I'd personally look at physio, all a GP will do is refer you to an NHS physio, which will likely taken 2-3mths to be seen, just book a private physio appointment

I guess I was assuming I need some sort of scan as a first port of call to see what's wrong? Is that the physio department then?

[Lynchie999]

you can't really just rock up to a Physio ... go to your local Minor Injuries / Drop in unit ... or failing that a GP

or just book to go to a private physio / sports injury place

[K77 CTR]

111 can make appointments at an urgent treatment centre. A lot of areas now allow self referral to physio but they often have a wait. I work in an urgent treatment centre and would happily see a patient with your complaint. We are able to xray if indicated

[dmason]

K77 CTR said:

111 can make appointments at an urgent treatment centre. A lot of areas now allow self referral to physio but they often have a wait. I work in an urgent treatment centre and would happily see a patient with your complaint. We are able to xray if indicated

This.

I have a local drop in/minor injuries clinic and will always call 111 beforehand. They make the appointment for me and I can literally walk straight in and be seen within minutes. Walking wounded straight off the street can wait an hour or more.

The team of nurses and doctors there do a fantastic job.

[Boosted LS1]

skinnyman said:

111 will be useless, they cannot accept responsibility for dodgy advice given over the phone, so 99% of the they just suggest A&E.

I've used the service several times. Have even got an appointments at 30 mins notice but I've never been sent to A&E. For me, I'd say it's been a brilliant service.

[Riley Blue]

Boosted LS1 said:

skinnyman said:

111 will be useless, they cannot accept responsibility for dodgy advice given over the phone, so 99% of the they just suggest A&E.

I've used the service several times. Have even got an appointments at 30 mins notice but I've never been sent to A&E. For me, I'd say it's been a brilliant service.

I've been referred to A&E after calling 111 and when I told them I was unable to drive there an ambulance was sent, can't fault them.

[Brainpox]

In an ideal world you'd contact the GP surgery and see if you can be referred to a specialist physio, without needing to see anyone in person. Maybe they have nurse/paramedic practitioners on site that are authorised to do this. The physio can then assess/treat and send for imaging/refer to orthopaedics if need be.

A lot of areas have 'integrated musculoskeletal' services set up to, essentially, avoid everyone needing to see a doctor because they've hurt themselves.

In theory, the person that's hurt themselves gets seen more quickly and doctors are kept free for sicker patients. In reality, depending on where you live, the waiting times are pretty long regardless.