Accident and Emergency Hospitals in the Lake District

Thanks Stuart. This is good information to tuck away. I’m wondering if it would be helpful if there was a thread topic started dealing with medical situations and differences in the UK. Like I didn’t know that not all hospitals had Emergency Rooms or A & Es. Maybe come up even with a list of various options- i.e. which hospitals have particular services in heavy tourist areas- like you’ve added with the Lake District. London, Wales, the Peak District, Edinburgh maybe? I don’t know, I am just thinking out loud here.

Helen mentioned in another thread to have the number 101 in mind for non emergencies, etc. And that they will advise where to go for further treatment. That’s a good piece of information.

I was under the assumption, too, that if you stayed in a hotel/accommodation that is staffed or has employees on site they would know how to advise their guests in the event of a medical situation. Maybe not needing an ambulance per se, but doctor. Claudia’s situation has made me realize that might not be the case and that I need to have my own backup knowledge just in case.

The NHS emergency number is 111 not 101. That was wrong information that I gave you there.

A hospital A&E is not the place to go with minor ailments but for a visitor with no GP access it may be the only option. In theory foreign users should be billed but it doesn’t always happen.

You should always travel with insurance and if you call your travel insurance provider they should tell you where to go for treatment. If possible I would expect them to tell you to seek private treatment rather than NHS. I know this is what happens with British travel insurance providers anyway. If I’m in say Spain I will be directed to a private hospital not a publicly funded one.

That is kind of why I had started this thread. I can only speak for my own area, as Claudia has brought to light some general issues which as a resident I hadn't thought of in relation to a visitor.

In my part of Cumbria which is part of the Northumbria Health Care Trust we also have a live web page showing waiting time and numbers of people waiting at each A and E, or Urgent Care Centre. As far as I am aware South Cumbria (that is Grasmere and south thereof) does not have such a page as they are under the Morecambe Bay Hospital Trust. When I looked at lunchtime Keswick had a 2 hour 45 minute wait time.

The very simple advice I would give is to call 111 (not 101, that is the police non emergency number) or use 111 online- https://111.nhs.uk/

They will triage you and advise you of where to attend (so you don't attend a wrong hospital or one which is too busy). In most cases they will advise you to make your own way there, but if it is really serious will blue light you.
That happened to me once- I went in to see the Doctor on a very minor matter (I thought) and was blue lighted out on a warning it was probably a one way journey with my Parish Priest alerted. Needless to say the locum doctor had misread an ECG.

In my part of the world the response from 111 may be to send CHOC (Cumbria Health on Call)- where an on duty doctor is sent to your home to assess you first. They then decide what further action is needed. CHOC vehicles use green lights. I assume other parts of the country have similar services. Both my parents had a direct line to what was then Cuedoc due to the nature of their final illnesses.

If in any doubt about whether a medical matter is serious of course ring 999.

A and E (or the ER) in the UK is for "serious injuries and life-threatening emergencies". 111, the UTC's etc are for "lesser" (a word I don't want to be misinterpreted, especially with a live case in hand) matters.

Thank you very much for starting this thread. I am guilty of having grown lax about researching medical facilities before my trip and the protocol to deal with my travel & health insurance, but like I said, I have grown lazy. A good reminder to get back to basics again.

The advice is to ring 111 in the first place unless it is clearly an emergency in which case 999.

Often 111 will tell you to go to the nearest A&E unit if you can or to an Urgent Care Centre if less critical. These are often next to a hospital A&E but can also be elsewhere in towns and cities.

Somewhat ironically I am typing this from Ward 11 in Royal Preston hospital! No need for concern - as you see I’m sat up in bed playing on the internet! I have had a preventative operation today for a blocked carotid artery and require an overnight stay.

To get to this I attended the A&E two weeks ago after feeling a funny feeling in my left arm. Lots of tests later over two weeks and a very minor stroke was diagnosed, probably caused by the artery blockage.

Oh goodness John, take care of yourself! Typing about hospitals and advice while in the hospital! I nominate you for the award for most dedicated and awesome RS forum member! :) So glad you had the procedure to try to prevent anything more serious. Continued positive thoughts and prayers for you!

Another question that I had… can US doctors call in prescriptions to UK pharmacies? I thought about this scenario bc we have a portal that our primary care physician used. Great guy- just retired unfortunately, but the whole practice, including our new guy, uses it. When I had a routine physical after getting home from our 2022 London trip, I told him about my shin injury and the collapsed vein, swelling, etc. that occurred and how worried I was about it (turned out to be fine, but it looked really bizarre and I freaked out thinking about a potential blood clot).

Anyway, he told me that I should have contacted him through the portal and he could have assuaged my fears by FaceTiming me to see if he needed to call something over or recommend anything else. Obviously it had already happened, so his kind offer wasn’t applicable, but I wonder now, could he have done anything drug wise from the US to a UK pharmacy? Do you all know if that can even occur if in the event someone needs a prescription? Maybe having the ability to do something like a portal message, then FT or video chat with your doctor in a non- emergency situation would be a possibility if you were to need an intervention and not have to go to a hospital.

@Mustlovedogs

A very interesting question. The suspicion would be not, but I don't know.

We pay £9.90 per item (unless over 60 when it's free) with the NHS paying the rest of the cost.

I would doubt that most pharmacies (unless it is an over the counter item) would have the system to charge you full price.

That is where private health care would come into it, I would guess.

A prescription from your doctor in the US would not be accepted here. Your best bet would probably be to find a private doctor who would have the time to talk to your own doctor and get things sorted that way. The NHS will not have the time or resources or it’s probably not even allowed for them to talk to your own doctor from back home. I just can’t imagine that would ever happen unless possibly you were at deaths door with a mysterious illness or something like that.

In the NHS system you really do have to be grateful for what you get. The patient is not a customer and can’t demand what they want. Likewise, the clinician is not interested in keeping you as a paying customer. They focus on curing your condition in the cheapest, quickest, most efficient way possible.

The way you talk about the interactions you have with your dr are a complete anathema to NHS patients. No such thing as a ‘routine physical’ and you’ll be extremely lucky if you get to see the same doctor twice.

mustlovedogs- the truth is that were I at home at 10pm on a Friday night I would probably have something better to do but sat here in a hospital bed I don’t!

Re the US doctor and a prescription in the U.K. I am sure that it wouldn’t be possible through the NHS. But maybe your doctor could get contact to a private GP here to do it. It would work out expensive if quick but maybe your health insurance would cover it?

Pharmacies are all able to sell drugs at the retail price. As a student I worked for a dr who wrote me a private antibiotic prescription for something minor. I just paid the cost price of the drugs which was around £15 at the time so quite expensive I thought!

Helen - I know that the NHS is challenged right now and I hear horror stories from my son’s GP service in London, but it’s not my experience at all. I have a small GP practice that I can call and easily get appointments with both doctor and GP. I also have regular 6 month checkups and medication reviews on my various medical conditions. And I’ve been sorted out with my current issue inside a couple of weeks (and most of that time was taking tests and waiting for results).

Anyway, he told me that I should have contacted him through the portal and he could have assuaged my fears by FaceTiming me to see if he needed to call something over or recommend anything else. Obviously it had already happened, so his kind offer wasn’t applicable, but I wonder now, could he have done anything drug wise from the US to a UK pharmacy? Do you all know if that can even occur if in the event someone needs a prescription?

If the med also requires a prescription in the UK, then you would need to see a UK physician to get the prescription. If the med were available without a prescription in the UK, then the pharmacist could help.

Most of the U.S. Embassy websites contain info on how to obtain medical services. Here is the one for the U.S. Embassy in London
https://uk.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/medical-information/

If you already have a chronic health condition you will get regular reviews, but not otherwise. And I doubt they’d be interested in a sore leg that you had a holiday and offering a virtual consultation for it!

My GP service is actually fine as well but you can’t choose who you see. I mean technically you can but you would struggle to get an appointment as there is no option given so you’d in effect be refusing the only option.

As an example of cost cutting : Often if you have a long term condition like MS or diabetes you’ll be seen by a specialist nurse even if nominally under a consultant (the highest tier of doctor). Test results are reviewed by the dr and you will get a letter about them but you only actually speak to the nurse who arranges all the meds and regular blood tests etc. You might see the actual doctor once a year at most.

there are large and small NHS hospitals all over the country, some have A&E, some don't. The road signs and hospital signs will be very clear which are which, and which are private and which are NHS.

You wouldn't be surprised that cancer hospital or a small cottage hospital or a mental hospital didn't have an A&E would you?

A good first place to go is the pharmacist.

Then there are Urgent Care or Minor Injury Units.

Also there are some online ways of getting a GP appointment if you need one for a prescription - PushDoctor and Livi are a couple of apps that offer this. You can pay for a consultation this way or get it for free if your own doctor has an arrangement with them. You get a video call via the app with an actual GP and they offer weekend and evening appointments. They can give online prescriptions.

I’ve used PushDoctor few times and it’s pretty good. They refer you for tests if necessary. So I guess that might be a simple way for an overseas visitor to see a GP?

Helen, I think you misunderstood parts of what I was asking about. I would never think that a NHS doctor would confer with my doctor here for a busted leg. What my doc suggested was that I could have let him know the situation through the portal and that I would have conferred with me through our phones. No involvement with any UK doctor would be needed.

Nigel, the great information shared here has shown me there are differences in the designation/name and even the way an injured or ill person acquires care in the UK vs. the US. The majority of our hospitals have ERs so I was unaware that some in the UK didn’t. When we have smaller, rural medical facilities that don’t have an ER service, it’s often called a clinic, not a hospital. Cancer patients (at least in more local areas) see doctors and receive treatments not at what would be called a Cancer Hospital, but rather in a Cancer Wing or Cancer Center which is an actual part of that city or town’s general hospital. So I think a part of the difference is the way they are named here and there. So, given how you have described the differences, no, I wouldn’t expect a cancer hospital in the UK to have an ER, but in the US it’s very probable bc it means something totally different.

What’s popping up now, around us anyway, are small stand alone ER buildings- run by the hospital systems - that take less critical patients, say broken ankle, need for stitches, etc. Some can x-ray. They are a level above what we call “Doc in a box” or minute clinic, where people can go in for a sore throat or flu, quick antibiotics, etc. rather than make an appointment with your primary doctor.

It’s good to know more about the process of getting medical care in the event of any type need. Thanks to everyone for all the great information. I’m a pretty healthy person, but knowledge is power and being prepared for even a random situation is never a bad thing.

My wife and I had the need to see physicians in Europe on two separate occasions this summer. The first was in the UK (Inverness); my wife had a URI that went bacterial, and our AirBnB host was kind enough to get her seen by their GP. Excellent outcome after a thorough consultation and brief regimen of antibiotics. My instance was a bad fall in the Antwerp Sint-Annatunnel occasioned by the bicycle traffic there*. Again, our AirBnB host got me an appointment with his GP and I was fitted with a sling to immobilize my shoulder that had been injured, after an ultrasound determined that only soft tissue had been damaged. Yet another reason we like AirBnB lodgings.

*I really don't recommend the Sint-Annatunnel. We had heard flowery descriptions of the decorations within, but those really exist only in the escalator halls. The tunnel itself carries both pedestrian and bicycle traffic with no clear delineation of who is supposed to be where. Go, ride the escalator down from the ground to the tunnel level, then return to the surface. That's my recommendation.