It's all very well for the Health Secretary Wes Streeting to be issuing orders to overstretched casualty departments at the time when flu, norovirus, Covid and respiratory virus rampage through the population.
He doesn't want to see desperately ill patients dying in the corridors of their hospitals because they're not getting the attention they need. Quite right.
He wants A&E to ignore the target that suggests no one should wait in casualty for more than four hours. Instead, he says doctors should deal with the urgent cases and let those at no risk of instant demise just wait - and wait and wait - their turn.
It makes perfect sense in an NHS supposedly dedicated to saving lives.
But has it not occurred to him to wonder why casualty departments are so ridiculously oversubscribed in the first place? Why the ambulance service is in such great demand it can't begin to cope? Why people are rushing to casualty with problems that previously would have been handled by their local doctors' surgery?
I can tell you, Mr Streeting. The GP service is shot and, given the choice between making endless phone calls and being told there's no chance of an appointment for weeks, a trip to A&E makes perfect sense.
Here's my most recent tale of woe. About a month ago I caught the nail on my big toe on a sharp surface. It bent back and bled a lot. I'd already been treating it for a fungal infection. I managed to speak on the phone to a physician associate who organised a prescription for antibiotics. I took them, then set off for my planned Saga cruise to the Canary Isles.
My plans for using the hydrotherapy and swimming pools were somewhat curtailed as I had an open wound. I thought the antibiotics would deal with the infection. They didn't.
I woke one morning with agonising swelling and red skin on my lower right leg. The toe didn't look healthy. I suspected cellulitis - a potentially dangerous infection under the skin probably caused by the injury to my toe. I called the ship’s medical centre. I was told to come right away.
I saw the doctor at once. He confirmed the cellulitis and said it was undoubtedly caused by the infected big toe.
'That nail needs to come off,' he said. 'Come on, let's do it.'
Plenty of local anaesthetic was injected into my toe and the nail was removed. The wound was cleaned, disinfected and dressed beautifully. I was given intravenous antibiotics and told to come tomorrow for more.
Two days later I'd had three lots of IV antibiotics, the dressing was changed and I was sent off with a week's supply of powerful oral antibiotics and instructions about what to do at home.
'See your GP immediately. Have the dressing changed every two days. Get enough antibiotics to last at least six weeks.'
The treatment couldn't have been better - the way it used to be at the GP.
Once home I called the GP. No, they could not offer a dressing change. They had no nurses. I must go to the walk-in centre at the Finchley Memorial Hospital.
As for an appointment with a doctor, there was nothing available till December 31.
I pointed out to the receptionist that cellulitis can be a dangerous condition, leading to sepsis. Still no appointment on offer.
'I'll send you a form via text,' she said. 'Fill it out and a doctor should see it and maybe find an appointment for you.'
The form was long and detailed. First it told you to contact 111 or 999 if the problem was serious - heart attack, stroke, confusion, difficulty breathing, heavy bleeding, signs of a severe infection etc.
So that's how the GPs are shoving people off to the A&E departments. Make your own decision, maybe take yourself to hospital.
I did fill out the form. I was warned it might not be seen by a doctor for up to 72 hours.
I'd gone pretty strongly in the 'what I was worried about' section on the risk of sepsis. I suspect that may have been why I got a call offering me an appointment two days later.
Meanwhile, I took myself to the walk-in centre at the little local hospital and waited five hours to see a nurse who changed my dressing. What a palaver.
Throughout the whole process I was thinking about elderly people or those for whom English isn't their first language, who might not be as tech savvy as I am and would have been floored by the idea of filling out the form online. How many would have gone to A&E for treatment?
So, Wes Streeting, your most urgent port of call must be the GPs. It's entirely admirable to be concerned for people who must not be left to die in hospital corridors, but with a decent GP service they might not be competing with less desperately ill patients who would never have been in A&E to begin with.
A good GP eases a person's pain and fear and sends them on for specialist care if need be.
No rush, no panic, just a sensible use of resources.