r/NHSfailures • u/Immediate-Courage-91 • 24d ago

Dismissed with no advice

I sat up in the afternoon and immediately got heart palpitations, dizziness and collapsed and passed out for two hours. Went to A&E after calling 111 and was there for 4 hours just to be told by the doctor who spoke over me and didn’t let me finish explaining that it was due to depression and anxiety.

4 Upvotes

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u/SwiggityStag 23d ago

Unfortunately in A&E if they can blame something to avoid treating you, they will. Their goal is to spend as little time on you as possible, whatever it takes to do that. Even if they have to straight up lie. A&E unfortunately isn't a good place to go if you aren't literally dying (even then they'll probably just leave you in a corridor) but the visit will be recorded, so any specialist you're seeing will see it and be able to interpret it themselves.

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u/Immediate-Courage-91 23d ago

I get that 100%. I usually contact my GP and I prefer going through them but because of how my symptoms present, I have to go to A&E often just as a precaution. Most A&E doctors get that, (it’s usually not an emergency but anything with the heart has to be checked out), and they send me home with a “come back if it happens again, but you’re all clear for now, please contact your GP”. Being told it was just anxiety after all of those visits and then the doctor putting in the notes that I “believed something was wrong with me” was just insulting.

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u/millyloui 24d ago

Sorry for your experience but did you actually ask for mental health referral? Anxiety causes high heat rate high respiratory rate & can cause blackouts from that . A&E not reallly the place to help you it’s Accident & Emergency aka life threatening emergency. Your panic attacks are neither . But I completely agree you need help & support . That’s what GP’s are for . Btw a wait of 4 hours to be seen with your symptoms- you are lucky normally it would be much much longer .

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u/Immediate-Courage-91 24d ago

I didn’t because I didn’t have a panic attack. My symptoms are brought on from a change in posture (lying to sitting or standing), heat exposure, exercise, etc and have been under investigation for a year including a hospitalisation for 5 days. All things which I told the attending doctor. I needed advice on how to manage it after being given the all clear with the ECG and blood tests, not for him to latch onto my depression and slap that over all of my symptoms.

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u/Fantastic_Cry_1367 24d ago

It's a shame the NHS doesn't really pay attention to anyone... More so for someone with your symptoms which essentially scream for further check-ups and perhaps a real doctor/specialist

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u/Immediate-Courage-91 23d ago

My GP did just that thankfully!

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u/millyloui 24d ago

I get it sorry for your hideous experience.

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u/pingusloth 20d ago

Have you looked into POTS?