Why I’m thankful for an alternative to the emergency room
Aside from the awful, crippling agony of a crisis, one of the most difficult aspects of having sickle cell disease for me is navigating the emergency department here in the United Kingdom, where I live.
I understand that it’s a high-pressure work atmosphere with a lot of responsibility, and it must be tough for practitioners to keep track of everyone in their care. However, nearly all of my encounters have been unfavorable.
I’m terrified just thinking about going to the emergency room. I’m constantly afraid I’ll run into a medical practitioner who is hostile to sickle cell sufferers and refuses to provide pain treatment on the timetable suggested by my hematologist.
Because of this dread, I’m hesitant to go to the hospital when I’m in severe pain. I’ll frequently suffer at home rather than seek the medical attention that a sickle cell crisis necessitates. According to my interactions with my sickle cell network, my story is not an outlier. Because they are afraid of being mistreated at the emergency department, many patients prefer to address severe emergencies at home.
To say I was overjoyed when my hospital announced the establishment of a day unit for sickle cell patients would be an understatement.
A desperately needed pain management service
The day unit is a nurse-led program that assesses and treats sickle cell patients based on the degree of their crisis pain. As outpatients, our goal is to acquire immediate pain relief. Outpatients, indeed!
Because the emergency department is frequently unable to provide pain medication quickly and on time, a crisis can linger much longer than necessary. Because our situation has not been resolved, patients frequently require admission at the end of the day. We should be able to go home at the end of the day with the day unit.
Furthermore, we will be treated by healthcare experts who are well-versed in hematology, which is not often the case in the emergency room. This, hopefully, means we can avoid any negative connotations or judgments from practitioners who are unfamiliar with our sickness.
Many other hospitals in the United Kingdom, notably in London, have built a day facility for sickle cell patients. It not only gives an alternative to the emergency department, but I believe it will also save hospital resources and money in the long term by lowering the possibility of admissions, which are expensive for the National Health Service (NHS). The service also helps sickle cell sufferers to have fewer disturbances and a higher quality of life. It’s a win-win situation.
Given the NHS’s present budgetary and resource restrictions, I believe that all hospitals serving sickle cell patients should consider introducing the day unit program. However, I would not confine it to the United Kingdom; the service may assist hospitals and people worldwide.
Day units, on the other hand, have some constraints. If there are no ward beds available at the end of the day and a patient is still in an acute crisis, they will most likely be transferred to the emergency room until a suitable bed becomes available. In addition, if a patient is suffering from a serious crisis or complications such as acute chest syndrome, they must seek care in an emergency room.
The day unit service at the hospital where I am being treated is quite limited, only allowing one patient at a time. Given the hospital’s large number of sickle cell patients, I hope the staff expands and improves access to this service so that several patients may be serviced concurrently.
Erin Balsa is a highly skilled and knowledgeable health journalist with a passion for educating the public on important health and wellness topics. With extensive experience in both traditional and digital media, Erin has established herself as a trusted voice in the field.