The NHS. a question.

Lad at work randomly had his ankle swell up last week and he was in significant pain, struggling to put any weight on it. He's been trying to get a doctor's appointment ever since and been unsuccessful.

Came to work this morning practically unable to work so I told him to get himself off to hospital for them to check it out.

He went and they x-rayed it and said nothing broken, go to the chemist and get paracetamol. Oh and you shouldn't have come to the hospital for something minor like that, stop wasting our time.

Am I wrong to think that with an ankle that's swollen up significantly seemingly out of nowhere and with such pain that he's unable to walk properly, and after trying to get an appointment to see a GP for a almost a week, that the hospital is exactly the place he should be going? Not only that but am I being thick here or if the doctor in the hospital looked at it and thought it needed an x-ray that again the hospital is exactly the place to go as the poor lad doesnt have an x-ray machine at home.

To recommend over the counter painkillers seems wrong too. Sure, it is (doing a poor job of) masking the pain but it doesn't explain what has caused the large swelling in his ankle in the first place. It seems to me like he's been fobbed off and not actually given any treatment at all.

The NHS has long been ******. The majority of the front line staff are brilliant but the NHS itself is ****** with an attitude of getting people out the door as quickly as possible

 

If he'd managed to get an appointment with a GP he would probably have been given painkillers and a request for an X-Ray - which would take a while, by then it may have cleared up anyway and the appointment could be cancelled. In the end, the hospital is right - people shouldn't be turning up for sore ankles without having seen their GP, but if you can't get an appointment then people have little choice other then walk in centres - don't know if there is one near your mate, but the one in Wakefield is pretty good tbh - I wnt there when I sliced my thumb up pretty bad, and they did a good job and it meant one less person in A&E.

 

He's in Rotherham, they closed the walk-in centre and merged it into the a&e department under the title 'urgent and emergency care'
Their own website says "An urgent care need is something which needs immediate care but isn’t life or limb threatening, such as broken bones, burns and scalds, wounds and minor illnesses including fever, infections and rashes". It's all very contradictory, how do you know if you have a break if you don't have an x-ray machine? How is a minor illness an urgent care need? If minor illnesses are included then anything is really.

 

There's a big difference between a sore ankle, and really bad pain, not being able to put weight on it and walk properly? If he & his family is scared (not educated on medical stuff), perhaps he thought he had a blood clot? Bone fractures/popped out?

 

He was worried because he doesn't remember doing anything to have caused it and his lack of mobility worried me a little today because he could barely walk despite having two days of complete bedrest this weekend (the lazy bugger)

 

My youngest son broke his wrist in two places at the reds in the community kids club on Friday . He was dealt with within two hours at BDGH . Great service . He’s back in tomorrow for his cast redoing . No concerns from me .
Just to add the club as offered us some free tickets to a home match because of what happened . I told them he’s suffered enough

 

Aren’t you supposed to go to a walk in centre/minor injury clinic set up specifically for things such as that? Presuming Barnsley has one I suppose, there’s a few here that you are supposed to attend, not A&E. Did he phone 111?

 

No he didn't phone 111. In Rotherham (like Barnsley) there isn't a walk-in centre as they were both closed due to funding cuts. Rotherham's was merged into the main hospitals urgent and emergency care unit which advises you to go there for, amongst other things, breaks and minor illnesses.

 

If it was specifically billed as ‘merged’ and not ‘got rid of’ then he definitely went to the right place (not that he had a choice anyway if it had gone). Phoning 111 was the correct action though. They could have got him an appointment direct, either with an emergency GP or a referral to hospital, and then he wouldn’t have got a ticking off for just turning up.

 

Yep, that’s what happens down here.
If you can’t get an appointment and insist they tell you to ring 111, who will then make an appointment at Urgent Care, which is next to A&E.

 

I had the same about 4/5 years ago, no breakage but sprained. It was horrendous, so bad I couldn't sleep. Had to go up & down stairs on my arse, took me a full 5mins to get in the bath & the same out. Barnsley General though were really very good with me, got me a wheelchair as I could not walk & I didn't have to wait too long despite it being busy. I was given some advise & a prescription for Co-Codamol. Took me about 6 to 8 months to recover fully, hope the lad at work isn't as bad.

 

It'll be gout. Get him to blag some Naproxen until he can see his GP and get on allopurinol. I've some Colchicine he can have. That kills a bout stone dead but it's toxic and you have to stop taking it as soon as you feel side effects. Don't eat grapefruit on them too as it will kill you. They work though.

 

Shouldn't he have been advised to take ibuprofen as an anti inflammatory painkiller rather than paracetamol?

 

I thought that too

 

There's someone else at work who suffers with gout regularly and he reckons the visible symptoms don't really match what he gets.
Coincidentally they both live on the same street. It isn't relevant at all but i just thought it was a coincidence and I do like a good coincidence

 

Having recently had experience of Wakefield and Leeds LGI A&E ‘s there’s a big difference in attitude of staff . If I was him I’d be phoning the GP and demanding a face to face appointment particularly if it’s not getting better

 

I get gout in my toes and elbows . Napraxon shifts it quickish but it upset my stomach something rotten !

 

What was the difference, out of interest.

 

If you're taking naproxen for a long time or at risk of getting a stomach ulcer, your doctor may prescribe a medicine, such as omeprazole or lansoprazole, to protect your stomach.
that’s the NHS advice , I used to take naproxen alot but with lansoprazole might be worth asking your GP