Huge rise in number of people in England’s A&Es for coughs or hiccups

26 comments

1. 1.2 million people attended A&E for a sore throat? Jesus Christ

2. Who the fuck goes to accident & emergency for hiccups. Receptionist should be allowed to slap people I swear

3. The guardian has turned into such a shit rag these days. I worked as nurse in a&e for a few years. You know what else apart from the flu could cause mild symptoms like coughs and hiccups? Lung cancer, pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, tuberculosis, stroke, brain tumours, multiple sclerosis, meningitis, heart conditions, pericarditis, esophageal cancer, stomach cancer, pancreatic cancer, the list goes on

4. Quick reminder that seemingly trivial symptoms can actually point to life threatening illnesses.

5. Just put a £20 charge on A&E admission to deter the time wasters. Honestly the time wasters probably cost far more lives in wasting hospital time than the charge would from putting people off going. Like if you really feel like you’re in serious trouble £20 shouldn’t be a big deal.

6. Tangentially related, getting a GP appointment (not in the next calendar year) for an ailment that impacts one’s ability to work is almost impossible these days.

   Wrinklies are a priority even if they’re only ever there for a chat with the staff and then doctor about a repeat prescription. The local hypochondriacs have to be placated with GP face-time and there never seems to be a sense of…urgency about most practices.

7. This is what happens when its ‘free’. Charge 20 quid or so a visit and watch the traffic drop like a rock so people that actually NEED the help get it.

8. [removed]

9. This will continue to happen unless we get gp appointments

10. I wonder how many of these were for children. I know many parents, often fairly enough, think better safe than sorry,

11. I visit my GP surgery fairly regularly*

    There is usually a completely empty waiting room, and there is usually one person speaking to a receptionist trying to get an appointment (for something that sounds absolutely reasonable to me) who is told by the receptionist that they cannot have an appointment and that they should go home and sleep on it .., but if they still feel bad in 48 hours they should go to A&E.

    *Not to ever actually *see* a doctor but to pick up forms for blood tests that they insist I absolutely must have, but absolutely refuse to send me forms for unless I go there in person and demand to be given them.

12. blame media and politicians for all the fear mongering. They got a taste of it during covid and now its non stop you all going to die because you have the sniffles.

13. My local UTC and walk in centre is at A and E, all have the same entrance and your triaged at check in for which one you need I wonder if it accounts for that in the stats

14. [removed]

15. My GP surgery is pretty good. Every appointment request on line is triaged by a doctor the same day and you normally get a call the same day. The only times I’ve been to A and E as an adult I’ve been admitted by ambulance. This helps and I’ve only done it when really sick.

    As a kid I was always breaking bones in my motorbike or just jumping off high things. I have no idea what my waiting times were. I do remember 7 hand and wrist fractures not being spotted in x ray. I went over some other kid the same age who dropoed to the floor as I was chasing him at School. I feinted and they found the 7 green stick fractures and I was in a pot for over two months. I have never used. A&E for something unnecessary. These people are idiots and delaying patients in real need.

16. I have a feeling the guardian is being clever with their reporting here. Sometimes they mention ‘chief complaint’ and other times it’s just ‘with xyz’. Is it hiccups and only hiccups or is hiccups just noted as a reason and the person is there with other issues too?

    Would also love to know how many of these people called 111 first. I was told the night before last i needed an ambulance and would get a clinician call back to check. The call back time was 9 hours and i stayed up until 5am so i didn’t miss it. Three people in this time told me to go to A&E because why wait if i’ve been told that’s what i need? Ended up in my GPs at 10am the next morning, but had they not given me a quick appointment it would have been A&E unnecessarily.

17. Do what most EU nations do. Charge a small fee that is more costly than just picking up some meds from the pharmacy.

    Works just peachy for them.

18. Might be something to do with the fearmongering in the news every other days about a new flu strain and the ‘symptoms’ to look out for, which include, but not limited to ‘coughs or hiccups’

19. People end up at A&E because other parts of the system don’t work.

    I fell down the stairs earlier this year. It hurt but I didn’t need A&E. A few days later it wasn’t getting better, all I wanted to know was if I need to rest my leg or exercise it.

    GP wouldn’t see me as it was less than a week.

    Minor injuries wouldn’t see me because I fell forward (I didn’t hit my head, just hurt my leg and toe)

    NHS24 sent me to A&E, who were as frustrated as I was about the situation. I drove myself there so my wife didn’t have to wait with me.

20. And another one of these hit pieces. Let’s create some context here:

    Even the headline number of 2 million ‘nothing found to be wrong’ is pretty insignificant, there were 28 million A&E attendances in England in 2024. So that is about 7% of the total.

    But wait… some people might be found to have nothing wrong, but due to underlying conditions are asked to attend A&E if certain symptoms arise… guess what, that’s quite a large number.

    Making out that people are rocking up with hiccups (fewer than 5000… tiny number) doesn’t include whether there were any other symptoms so even that number is pointless.

    All this article achieves is making people not want to use A&E when they might have to. If you are unsure whether you should attend A&E or not, ring 111 to find out what their advice is. In some areas you have to do this to be tended to anyway.

    Make note of the nearest minor injuries/urgent treatment center, when you think your condition might not warrant A&E but you can’t get an appointment with the GP (due to time of day for example) then go there. During daytime, ring your GP practice for advice.

    But can we please stop with articles like this that love throwing around big numbers and not the warranted context they exist within?

21. I know my family members have become very nervous about coughs and sore throats after Covid, undstandably. it hasn’t been cured and kills people.

22. I’ve said it for years there’s needs to be a push in education starting at primary level all the way through to college, this is what you go to the pharmacy for, this is what gp is for, this is what urgent care is for, this is when you ring 999 for a ambulance this is what a&e is for

23. A&E doctor here ….. I do t doubt for a minute that there are people coming to ED with minor symptoms , but they are quickly triaged away either home, GP or urgent treatment centre .

    The reasons your ED ‘s are overwhelmed is because of bed closures in the hospital and poor social care (exit block) and an aging population that are getting more sick more regularly .

    Pieces like this serve to distract from the fact that the system is failing and tries to shift blame onto patients .

    The reason there are 90 year olds sitting in waiting rooms for 12 + hours isn’t because 30 year old ‘Kev’ has rocked up with the hiccups . It’s because the system is collapsing/has collapsed.

    The tories dismantled it over 15 years and labour ,so far , are showing no signs of improving things …. In fact my local hospital has just announced another ward will be closing soon to cut costs ….. meaning more people backing up in A&E .

24. because GPs are useless. in my town you have to call like 4-5in the morning and wait for 3 hours to even get to speak with someone.

25. Well, it takes me a week to get an appointment. So I am not surprised that worried people go to A&E.

    My father in law (in Spain, same situation) took self care and didn’t go to the doctor for stomach pain for a week and felt weak. We have closed his flat because it was a heart attack, he passed away.

26. Was in A&E with the MIL after her defib went off last, there was literally a group of 3 adults sat laughing the whole time, had a bag of snacks and drinks. Obviously have no clue why they were there but the “I’m on a lovely day out vibes” don’t give the impression it was really an emergency with their prepared snacks.

Comments are closed.