Mumsnet Talk

Ha! But your paper is always running articles about how GPs sent children home when in fact it was meningitis / cancer / other dangerous illnesses. I imagine is is just another NHS bashing article where pretty much no-one can win whatever they do?

My opinion? You ca't be too careful with a child's health, and if you'e a doctor and you are unsure then you should send them to someone who is more used to dealing with children, ie the paeds in ER.

Well said petite.

Sorry but even the way you have asked your question is skewed to make us think negatively of the NHS. How many lives have GPs saved by sending babies to A&E because they aren't sure what to do? Happy to wait 6 hours if a little life is saved.

What figures show that GPs are reluctant to treat children? Source please.

The Daily Mail actually wants the opinions of MNetters!?

Good point. What are these figures which were released?

I have an opinion. Gp stands for general practioner, they're not experts in any speciality. Therefore if they're not sure they will refer to hospital so the child can be seen by a specialist. If the GP thinks its urgent that referral will be a&e.

I'd much rather be sent with dd and it turns out to be nothing than a gp think its nothing and it turns out to be something bad. It isn't inappropriate care and no parent would begrudge a long wait to be seen and ensure their childs health.

I really do think that the DM has lost the plot. Do you really think your readers are too thick to not read such an article and think exactly what I've said.

I could tell you about my friend who thought her 4 month old baby's stomach was a bit swollen. She went to her GP who told her to go to a&e which she did. She was seen there and immediately transferred to a hospital with a paed specialist oncology centre. A rare form of liver cancer was diagnosed, he was days away from death. He was in hospital for over a year, fab nhs care and a liver transplant later he's at home in remission.

Why don't you write a nice story for once?

Maybe my friends GP should have given her some infant gaviscon.

At least then she wouldn't have had to wait in a&e.

Viva You know they'll probably take that story and twist it, don't you?

If you fancy a laugh seeing what some people do for a living, take a look at this link. You can play a game of "spot the story that actually helped advance the state of humanity". I've been playing for ten minutes and I didn't win a prize.

www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?authornamef=Zoe+Brennan

Absolutely Viva- I bet she is outraged that she had to go to A&E. Those useless doctors using tax payers' cash to save lives. Vile NHS.

Hahaha know your audience DM.

Unfortunately I don't have a story for your no doubt NHS bashing story and even if I did no way would I want to be associated with the Daily Fail <shudders>

sihilly you could win a game of Daily Mail bingo just from that selection. But let's not attack the journalist, she's just earning a living after all and working on orders from the top of that rag.

I think gp's are right to send chikdren to a&e if they have concerns, my gp sent us with ds3 and it was absolutely the right thing to do as he had kawasakies disease.

Its not worth taking the risk imo, i woukd rather go and be sent home having been reassured than not go and miss something serious.

Hate all the nhs bashing.

How does sending a baby to a&e result in 'inappropriate care'???

Why don't you write an article you could actually be proud of Zoe? A proper piece of investigative journalism rather than all the drivel of cheap shot crap stories in the link below.

There's all the stuff about how focusing on nhs targets is comprimising patient safety in the news at the minute. I bet its not just lincoln hospital where the chief exec has been told to ignore patient safety and focus on targets. So why don't you do something to try and unearth some more stuff like that? Or would that be too difficult/too much like hard work for you?

I'd love to see you try and do a difficult, responsible job like been a GP!

Or you could have a look at what your rag is trying to persuade everyone we want - a US style health system - and see what great care babies from families with no insurance get.

The BBC bashing from the DM has actual business reasoning behind it, which doesn't make it any more despicable but at least is explicable. But I don't get who stands to win from the constant jibes at doctors and nurses just trying to do their job?

Hah! Saw the title and thought: bet that's the DM. Like most sensible people I'd rather a child visit A&E unnecessarily than take the chance something serious was missed. Shame on you for scaremongering.

I have a non story. Recently ds was very poorly and saw the gp lots of times in a short space of time. The gp ummed and ahhed about referral to hospital but instead tried something which worked, and ds recovered really well at home without the trauma of a and e and possible tests etc. I can't fault the care he received - calls at home, a priority appointment and a recovery.

I'm not trying to attack the person who has written these articles for the mail. I am critiquing what she does, however. She is an independent moral agent, who can think through the consequences of her choices irrespective of the orders she gets from on high. And if she makes choices in the public sphere like these, then I have no qualms about publicly highlighting the shortcomings I believe I see in them. I prefer not to use the term "journalism" in relation to her choices, as it implies a specific type of activity and moral legitimacy that I think is inaccurate here.

My friend took her baby to the GP because he was newborn and crying in a strange way. The dr referred her straight on to A&E. the fantastic GP has spotted a rare symptom of meningitis in a newborn baby and the quick treatment saved his life. Bet you won't do a report on meningitis symptoms in babies though

Very good points sihilly I was trying to be reasonable and nice but I see in doing that I was being absolutely unreasonable. Apologies.

Thing is people write for the Mail because it pays particularly well in comparison to, say, the Guardian. And some people just can't see past those £££

All these stories of GPs sending babies to A&E and saving their lives. Is that what you are looking for Zoe?

So, Zoe is looking for parents outraged at being forced to waste time sitting in A&E with a healthy child?

I wonder how long it will be after that story that the Daily Fail runs another piece with tearful parents saying their GP sent their child home, and they later died of meningitis?

I think we all know which parents we would rather be.