NHS campaigns on the “funny side” of incorrect usage of A&E
7th November 2011
NHS campaigns on the “funny side” of incorrect usage of A&E
Watch the videos now
Campaign highlights incorrect us of NHS emergency services which could cost up to £100 million across England.
A series of viral videos are headlining an NHS campaign launched today (Mon 7 Nov 2011) highlighting some of the most incorrect reasons for patients attending A&E.
Actors from stage and screen gave up their time free of charge to appear alongside NHS staff as characters including women waiting for treatment for hair-dye disasters and botched false nails, a pushy mum desperate for her son to be seen by senior doctors for his diarrhoea, and even a man hoping A&E staff will turn their hands to helping out his poorly dog!
The more serious message is that cases such as these put added pressure on already busy A&E and 999 teams. In the North West alone, more than 400,000 people who could have been treated and advised by their local pharmacist or GP, or could have looked after themselves at home, went to A&E departments in the last 12 months.
Focussing on patients in the waiting rooms, the viewer can’t tell until the end of the films whether they’re in a vet’s surgery, X-factor audition, beauty salon – or a hospital. At the end of each, viewers are reminded that they should go to their local pharmacy for advice on treatment of very minor illnesses and injuries.
The videos, available on Youtube, are being distributed through social media, and also distributed for display at leading supermarket and pharmacy chains across the UK as part of the NHS’s annual “Choose Well” campaign. They have been launched to coincide with national Ask Your Pharmacist Week.
Every attendance at A&E in the UK costs a minimum of £59, and as many as one in four people who attend A&E could have been treated by their pharmacist or GP, or did not need any form of medical intervention. In the North West, this cost £20.9 million in the last year. Replicated across England, NHS North West economists say this equates to a cost of between £80 million and £100 million. Studies by other organisations have estimated even higher costs.
North West actors featured in the videos include Phil Broadbent, who has appeared in Shameless as well as ITV’s acclaimed drama Appropriate Adult, along with Salford GP and actor Dr Jenny Hayes. They were filmed on location at Manchester Royal Infirmary.
Notes to Editors:
The NHS Choose Well campaign launches across England on Monday 7th November 2011, and is being co-ordinated by NHS North West
The top 10 examples of incorrect usage of A&E and 999 teams from the North West are:
- A patient attending A&E complaining that her false nails were hurting her and asked that staff remove them.
- A patient attending A&E requesting that someone cut her toe nails as she could not get a chiropody appointment.
- A man who dialled 999 as he was suffering from constipation - he was otherwise fit and well.
- A child was brought into the department by her mother after she had trodden in dog faeces and the mother could not bear to wipe it off. She requested that the Accident & Emergency staff cleaned the shoe.
- A man who called 999 for an ambulance after he was bitten on the finger by Guinea pig.
- A woman who called 999 as she didn’t have transport to hospital.
- Female called 999 because she had diarrhoea.
- A woman who went to A&E because she had paint in her hair which she couldn’t remove.
- A woman who went to A&E because her hand had turned blue – it turned out dye had transferred from her jeans.
- A man who attended A&E because he had a hangover.