Every winter I get the flu, and the cough that comes with it sticks to my chest and my asthma makes me ridiculously wheezy and breathless, especially at night. I have been hospitalised before because of it. I have very mild asthma the rest of the time and never need to use my inhalers throughout the year; only when this awful flu comes every year just before Christmas. I have moved 6 times in the past 12 months, and my blue inhaler has got lost on the way.
I admit I should have gone to the doctors earlier in the week, but it is a 30 minute walk from my house to the nearest bus stop and my partner has only got a van with 2 seats so wouldn't be able to drive me and our baby (no babysitter really available). So I was just sort of hoping it would go away by itself.
Anyway last night was absolutely awful, I couldn't catch my breath, my chest was so tight and I was very very scared. So this morning I rang 111, they said a doctor would call me back. They didn't. I rang them again a few hours later. At 1.30 a doctor rang me back; she said I was clearly very ill and would fax a prescription to my nearest pharmacy as a matter of urgency for an inhaler, steroids and antibiotics. I was so relieved I burst into tears! My partner gave it a few hours to give the doctor time to send it as the pharmacy is a very long drive; he got there at 4.30 to find she hadn't actually bothered to send my prescription at all. I call 111 back again; they refuse to talk to me until I answer the 30 emergency questions for the 4th time today (have I injested any poisonous substance, have I seen a cancer specialist, am I bleeding profusely etc.) I told them that the answer to all the questions was no and I just needed to talk to a doctor urgently; but this wasn't good enough and I was told I would not receive any help unless I answered the questions all over again, wasting an extra 10 minutes. They finally said they had no record of a doctor calling me, was I sure but one would be in contact soon. It's been 90 minutes, I still haven't received a phone call and the pharmacy shuts soon. I know the NHS are overstretched and I am usually the first to make allowances but AIBU to begrudge the fact that I will most likely have to pay £££ on a taxi to spend hours in A&E tonight after either having an asthma attack or getting so close to one that I have no other option; when this could all be prevented by the doctor sending a prescription for one simple blue inhaler when she said she would? Also, has anyone got any tips on preventing asthma attacks/ making breathing easier without using an inhaler?
Lastly, please keep your fingers crossed for me that I get a call in the next 10 minutes!
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AIBU?
AIBU to be so frustrated with NHS direct?!
47 replies
Sammy1888 · 19/12/2015 18:17
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