The NHS needs to get tough on time wasters clogging up A&E - Andrew Vine

From what I could see, at least half the people in the waiting area had absolutely nothing wrong with them and should not have been there taking up the time and attention of overstretched staff.

And what a frightening, chaotic atmosphere these wastes of space were creating for the other half of the people waiting to be seen – those nursing injuries who were visibly in pain, worried parents with their arms around crying, obviously unwell, children and elderly people like the neighbour I had driven to hospital after he fell at home, injuring an ankle which turned out to be broken.

The staff deserved medals for the calmness and tolerance they displayed in the face of this mayhem, and simply should not have to put up with what has become a fact of life for A&E departments every day of the week.

Over the next few days, it’s likely to be even worse than usual, with waiting rooms full of boozed-up Christmas revellers and their sniggering mates who think it’s all a big laugh, especially on Friday, when the after-work parties happen.

Yet the sort of scenes any of us who have taken somebody to A&E in recent years will have seen are a year-round phenomenon. Hospital emergency departments are under siege from timewasters.

Confirmation of that came from NHS England earlier this month with a shocking set of statistics showing 200,000 people turned up at hospital last winter who shouldn’t have been there.

Unbelievably, among them were 400 people with hiccups. Then there were 3,800 people who came to A&E with ingrowing toenails, which they thought was an emergency, and 6,300 who regarded having a blocked nose as a crisis requiring hospital treatment.

All this happened over the course of only four months, from November to March. If the same pattern was repeated across the entire year, that would mean 600,000 people – more than the entire population of Sheffield – wasting the precious time and expertise of the country’s hospital staff.

The hundreds of thousands who are turning up with trivial complaints are adding to the already enormous strain the NHS is under.

Everyone with hiccups or a blocked nose is preventing sick children, frail old people and those in pain from being seen and treated as quickly as possible by tying up staff.

The stories we’ve all heard from families and friends about waiting hours to be seen in A&E are, at least in part, caused by the colossal amount of time that is being squandered on the selfish and stupid.

This isn’t something that should be shrugged off, or wearily accepted as the norm alongside the people who just wander into A&E departments because they fancy a lie down out of the cold or want to sleep off a skinful of drink.

We’re bang in the middle of the worst winter flu outbreak in years, with hospitals already sounding the alarm about the rising number of cases, and no sign of a peak in infections being reached.

The flu season is here a month earlier than usual and the particularly nasty strain that is circulating has resulted in the number of hospitalised patients increasing by 55 per cent in only a week.

Our A&E departments are going to be flat out dealing with people suffering from flu and in need of emergency treatment, especially those whose health is already compromised by other conditions, and this ought to be a spur to the NHS to get tough with the timewasters.

Those turning up with hiccups or ingrowing toenails need to be told in no uncertain terms to hop it. Go and see your local pharmacist, or if you’re really worried, ring the NHS 111 helpline and get some advice over the phone.

In revealing how many people are clogging up emergency departments unnecessarily, NHS England obviously hopes to make people think twice about whether they really need to go to hospital, or even shame some into behaving more responsibly.

That is a forlorn hope. A much stronger message, backed up by the refusal to admit those who have nothing wrong with them, is the only solution.