The stupidity of some people in terms of abusing the hard-pressed resources of our Accident and Emergency (AnE) services really never ceases to amaze.
People seeking to use AnE because they believe they will get treatment or tests carried out more quickly than through an outpatient appointment are so commonly seen, it's beyond joke!
I had to rush my uncle to AnE the other day from his home because he suffered severe acute abdominal pain. The fact that he wasn't found bleeding nonstop, caught out of breath or appeared anywhere near the life-threatening sort of state, got allocated a ticket that stated "Cat. 4 Semi-Urgent".
Holding that ticket, I could only hope Cat. 4 had a higher urgency than Cat. 3. But then how do you define semi-urgent anyway? I mean, can they even find a non-urgent case in there at all, as if a patient arrives by an ambulance in an AnE unit because he needs the toilet and doesn’t know where the nearest one is?
As I looked across the room, my answer revealed on the board - with augmented information too - the estimated waiting time for Cat. 4 was at the time...
180 minutes!
That was fast compared to a whopper 225 for those poor Cat. 5 semi-urgent souls!
Moral of the story - take care yourself and if one is still conscious and totally mobile - please just forget about getting treated at the nearest AnE, you will be wasting your time.
I must add though, their estimating ability was fairly accurate - 180 minutes of waiting time - spot on!
No comments:
Post a Comment