Letter to Editor: Patients caught in the cross fire between GPs and A and E
Health / Mon 6th Jan 2025 at 08:54am
Dear Editor,
I would like to make a statement about Accident and Emergency at Princess Alexandra Hospital.
I’m not making a complaint.
Recently, I had a routine appointment with my GP. He was very thorough. He felt it necessary for me to go to A&E for a specific blood test. I went with letter in hand.
A&E was very busy. It was an hour to be assessed and four hours to see the doctor. I was assessed quite quickly, but at six hours wait seeing no one I gave up.
I am not complaining about my time in A&E or the GP. Here is my issue.
Every winter I tend to get sent to A&E from the GP and every year the staff in A&E are derogatory towards the GP service.
I’ve had a range of things said such as GPs aren’t real doctors, GPs don’t know what they are doing etc. Yesterday, it was you didn’t need to come here, the GP could have done this test.
As a patient I have no idea who is correct, all I know is the GP deemed it necessary for me to come to A&E.
My issue is this, I assume a lot of patients with a referral letter from the GP get a similar attitude about why they are there. You are part of the same health service and if one medical professional deems it necessary for a patient to go somewhere else and you don’t agree with this then surely that is politics between the two NHS areas and should not be relayed to the patient.
How do you think the patient feels being told they are wasting A&E time because they followed the instructions of another medical professional.
If this is the widespread attitude of staff in A&E then you are adding to the eroding trust in another area of the NHS when your own performance isn’t great let’s face it.
I think this needs to stop, please keep your opinions about the GP service to yourselves. It is not necessary for anyone to hear how you feel about another medical professional and it doesn’t help the already anxious patient at the time.
Yours sincerely
Name and address supplied
Anon pah exhausted and burnt out
2025-01-06 14:33:36
I think the issue is everyone from a gp come to A&E with the expectation they have ‘a team waiting for them’ ‘will be seen urgently’ ‘will be seen straight away’, they come with an attitude to the staff that the ‘GP has told them the staff have to see them immediately’ and they are angry immediately on arrival when they are not. This happens around 50 times a day patient given the wrong information about what to expect in A&E and the rudeness is towards us, it is frustrating for us to see patient waiting long times for something that could have been done at the surgery, or if the GP referred them correctly to SDEC or to the teams they need to see. We explain this to show we arnt ignoring the wishes but have to follow a process as the GP hasn’t done said referral which is why you are waiting or that the expectations painted by the GP are not realistic. No one would say they arnt real drs as we work with them daily. Patients come expecting an alternate universe and are thrown into a pool of emergencies where they will always wait for hours in order of clinical priority.
Peter Lamb
2025-01-06 15:14:31
I think the clue is in the name A & E, Accident and Emergency anything else shouldn't be there.
Rhododendron Blue
2025-01-06 17:58:44
Anon PAH - exactly, and there’s many things that we don’t know about the author of the letter. Is the GP following the most appropriate pathway, are they even seeing them first or is the consultation by phone and if every winter they tend to be sent to the A&E, is it not such a predictable situation that the GP can’t mitigate it in some way? My own experience in the A&E is GPs often telling the patient they’re referred and evidently not doing so, leaving them to the mercy of the system
Name Supplied
2025-01-06 20:36:40
The system is broken.. Today I tried desperately to contact my Mother's GP. I needed advice on how or IF to administer her medication...something that was prescribed by her G.P. and something I have little knowledge on. After finally making contact, I was advised that no visits are available and to take her to A&E or ring 999...The medication is a Laxative. The G,P. Knows her history, has her notes and signs the prescriptions....where as at PAH, they know nothing of her history, she would of waited through hours of triange, in her nightdress, monopolising and spraying the W.C. and asking me for clean knickers. This is no way to treat a 90 yr old with Mild dementia.
Resident
2025-01-07 08:39:27
We need GPs back doing their jobs. If there's an issue wuth understaffed surgeries then invest in why younger generations of UK people aren't training to be GPs. The over reliance on people trained elsewhere who barely speak English or understand their patient isn't helping the system either . The way things are going the NHS will simply collapse. But I agree with the letter, it's the patients who get caught up in the politics and get A&E staff frustration taken out on them when they're just trying to get help but often can't and are told to go there . what are people supposed to do,?
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