Drac – Moderator
Paladin it’s a unit off the A&E you go the the hospital, book in and it’s passed to triage and then they treat you in the relevant department. Many A&E departments are adding on Minor Injuries for those that turn up with small issues that can be dealt with without taking up vital resources

So minor injuries department and A&E are seperate departments who both use the same Reception and waiting room which you access via a door with A&E above it…

I don’t really get it

No not necessarily.

So minor injuries department and A&E are seperate departments who both use the same Reception and waiting room which you access via a door with A&E above it…

Depends entirely on the hospital. Don’t let it worry you, just present yourself at reception and you’ll get pointed in the right direction. It is daft though.

…..but in some places it would seem to be!

Little wonder folk are unsure/confused

Well yes in some places it is but why is it confusing, hospitals have many departments. You report to the reception yes and then you get allocated to right department not hard to comprehend really is it. It’s also not daft as it means there’s staff dedicated to minors and others to more serious meaning. All very simple.

v8ninety – Member
So minor injuries department and A&E are seperate departments who both use the same Reception and waiting room which you access via a door with A&E above it…

Depends entirely on the hospital. Don’t let it worry you, just present yourself at reception and you’ll get pointed in the right direction. It is daft though

It doesn’t worry me, it annoys me though when folk harp on about people goin to the wrong place or unnecessarily using A&E when it is not always so clear-cut.

In some places, sprain your wrist, you go to A&E. Other places you go elsewhere.

oooh what a tough guy.. I’m all of a dither
It’s homoerotic macho toss like that which has caused irreversible and debilitating damage to my knee..

I think you might have some issues there yunki (homoerotic???? ) 😆 and completely misunderstood my reasoning behind the post.

Neil the wheel
I’m at MIU SBH on a regular basis and will refrain from commenting. Glad you are happy with the service.

I think you might have some issues there yunki (homoerotic???? ) and completely misunderstood my reasoning behind the post.

right on all counts 😀

….probably

sorry 😳

So…. Having worked in (actually – I still work there from time to time…!) one of the largest EDs (emergency department) in the south, this is my take on ‘it’…

I would say that ED/A&E is now really the place for what I would call medical or trauma emergencies – strokes, heart attacks, severe abdominal pains, major trauma, stabbings, fits, dying kids, and the like. The sort of thing urgent blood tests and scans and immediate medical treatments might be required for. The other thing these departments usually have over the others is Doctors – this is to say, these departments are likely to be best suited for ‘non protocol’ medical problems.
However, the larger departments will also have ‘minor’ areas, which are basically MIU but through other doors…

MIUs are a fairly newish idea – they can deal with things you are unlikely to die from – a broken bone, a moderate cut, a sprain. These are often staffed by only nurses/health care staff, though can have doctors. If you need urgent medication (beyond, I suppose, simple antibiotics) then they aren’t suited.

There are also ‘walk in centres’, which are a combo of GP/MIU departments.

The GP will usually deal with chronic physical and mental health issues, but also deals with acute medical problems that are not obviously life threatening. If it appears life threatening, we usually arrange direct admission, or send to A&E for urgent medical treatment.
We also deal with musculoskeletal issues such as chronic pains, sprains, and other joint problems. If we feel you need an XR then we can request, but if we think you’ve clearly broken a bone, we will forward on to MIU as the XR units we use generally don’t photo requests if we suspect a fracture. This is because the image isn’t looked at for a few days.

However, as many of you point out, at the face of all this are Humans, who have different levels of training skill, and caring.
If you go to an MiU you AreMore likely to get an XR because when following a pathway/protocol, the system is often very risk averse I.e. you are more likely to get ‘over investigated’, but this isn’t always best.

DrP

We had a wonderful queue of ambulances stacked outside of our a&e at the weekend, but since it appears we may explode in the next 6 months i guess that’s the least of my worries. In truth, we did get those who needed us most through as quickly as we could, and everyone else just had to wait. Personally, i don’t care who i treat at work; be it proper serious or repeat time waster. I won’t show huge interest in you, other than the medicine, it’s not casualty or holby. But i get paid to respectfully patch up punters, and that’s what i do to the best of my ability.

UPDATE: It is not sorted.

Phoned GP and spoke to receptionist who advised I go down to A&E. I was a bit unsure that she understood the accident had happened a week or so back.

Thought I’d try the MIU/walk in centre route first. Went down there waited for 20 minutes was assessed and assessor agreed I need an X-Ray. BUT for some reason I do not understand he cannot analyse the X-Ray, my GP has to do this.

He phoned GP to ask them to give me a radiology referral which the receptionist agreed to I was then all set to go to radiology this afternoon.

Ten minutes ago my GP phoned. He is not happy with all of this or me for going to the walk in centre. I have to go and see him at 3pm to get the referral done proper. He told me that A&E would not see me if the injury had been done more than 72 hours previously.

Now I am sure that I’ve been an utter hampton in all of this. The upside is I’ve done loads of extra exercise through walking around the place. But I feel I’ve cost the NHS more than if I’d simply bumbled into A&E in the first place.

To make matters worse, today is my wife’s birthday. We’ve been married 17 years and together for 20. How the f***k could I have forgotten it?

I think ^ explains a lot.

How the f***k could I have forgotten it?

possible broken bone is going to be the least of your worries (quite rightly!).

My GP has referred me to a local x-ray centre for bike related injuries a couple of times. It’s just a drop in place and you get seen pretty much the day of the referral and they do tend to give a ‘well it looks alright but a radiologist will have a look and confirm’ verdict on the spot.

So, lots of faffing and the total acheived is the square root of bugger all!

Sounds like when I broke my ankle:

Walk in centre – Go to A&E now
A&E – pah, tis but a strain, couple of weeks and it’ll be OK (no X-ray)
GP 3 months later (still buggered ankle!) – Hmm, probably physio, but have an X-ray just in case, it’s not broken, but the physio will want a picture
X-Ray dept – Hmm, we’ll put this through as an urgent referral, the fracture clinic will deal with you directly – go home, you’ll hear from us
Week goes by and ends up with Mrs Feet creating a scene in docs, get an appointment
GP – it’s broken, you need to go to the fracture clinic – phone for an appointment
Fracture clinic (couple of days later) – it’s broken in 3 places, but luckily for you it’s all setting back in the right place – physio for you

I knew it bloody hurt!

^^^^^^^

Sounds Familiar with Royal Blackburn A&E.

Me: I think I’ve torn my Knee Ligaments again, especially the lateral side.
A&E: We will X Ray your Tibia
Radiologist: Doesn’t seem like anythings broke.
A&E: Just a Sprain heres Some pain Killers, try not to walk on it for a couple of days.

Gp two weeks later, its still hurting. Does a Valgus stress test, Right Urgent MRI Referal.
Week Later MRI scan done. Few days after results.
Proximal Fibula Fracture, LCL, ACL and MCL all Partially torn. Cartilage partially torn.

See Fracture clinic, it seems to be healing but you will need Physio.

12 weeks later I think Im ready to go back to work. Still have a very wobbly knee and a Throbbing ache where my Fibula head is. So we shall see what happens when i go back to work.

The OP has gone very quiet since admitting to forgetting his wife’s birthday…