to have to argue to get a doctors appointment for dd

[carelesswhispers]

we had a bad night with dd(3) last night , she had a temperature of 39.2 , an hour after giving her calpol her temp came down to 38.5 , i rang our gp this morning & was told that they could not see dd today & that it would be Monday before she could fit us in , i explained how sick dd is & that she is complaining of her ear being sore etc , again i was fobbed off & told to wait until after 6pm to call out an emergency doctor at this stage i asked if the doctor could just prescribe an antibiotic & i could drop down to pick it up , then all of a sudden she told me to bring dd down at 11am , when i got to the surgery there was only 1 person ahead of me in the waiting room . turns out dd has a very bad ear & throat infection & the doctor said i was right to take her to see him as her temperature is still very high ,

[colditz]

tell the doctor how obstructive the receptionist was.

[clam]

Can't be doing with obstructive receptionists. I just say "no, thank you, I'll discuss why I want to see the doctor with the doctor." Is it an emergency? Yes, actually. If you persist, you can usually get past them.

[carelesswhispers]

thanks colditz , i really feel annoyed now as poor dd is really not well & i hardly ever need to take the dc's to the doctors thankfully, yet when i really need an appointment this is the treatment we received , after we came out of the doctors the receptionist said " WELL" to me , dd had fallen asleep due to her temp being up so i just thanked her for fitting dd in & left .

[carelesswhispers]

thanks clam , will try that in future ,

[Blondeshavemorefun]

your poor dd and poor you

i thank my lucky stars that I have a great surgery

if you ring at 8.10 when lines open you WILL see a doctor that day - they try and get you to see your own often get 3 choices of times - say 9am, 2pm or 5pm - but you will ALWAYS be seen

[tethersend]

I think, but am not sure (hopefully someone will come along who knows) that if you arrive at the doctors, ie just turn up, they are required by law to see you that day.

I don't know where I heard that, and would like to know if it is true or not if anyone knows?

[carelesswhispers]

sorry just put dd to bed she fell asleep straight after i gave her the medicine ,
oh blondeshavemorefun your surgery sounds great , i suppose after a bad night with dd i just felt close to tears when told she could not see the doctor i was on the phone with the receptionist for 10 minutes before she finally told me i could bring her down , the minute she saw how pale dd was she said "ahh" ,
while i was waiting to go into the doctor a lady walked in & asked could she see the doctor as she had just had a fall out in the street & the same receptionist asked her did she have an appointment the woman said no & receptionist told her she couldn't fit her in until 5pm .

[dilemma456]

Message withdrawn

[thenameiwantedwastaken]

A trick my gran uses if she needs to get seen is to call NHS Direct, who of course say 'You must see your GP today to get this checked out...' then rings GP and name-drops NHS Direct. Not sure if it's true but she reckons there is some kind of monitoring to check GPs follow up NHS Direct referrals. Either way, at least you can back yourself up with NHS Direct, in the sense of 'I've spoken to the nurse on NHS Direct and she doesn't think I'm just a panicky mother'.

Glad to hear your DD having a nice sleep, careless whisper, and hope she feels better in morning. Maybe you should make formal complaint about receptionist?

[carelesswhispers]

that's a good idea dilemma456 , i suppose it might be due to the swine flu epidemic ? either way at least that Way a sick child gets to see a doctor , in dd case she really needed an antibiotic , there was no way we could have waited until Monday ,

[carelesswhispers]

lol at your gran thenameiwantedwastaken. clever woman
yeah she's fast asleep now & i dont think ill be far behind her

[CMOTdibbler]

Ours does a triage system too - they have a duty nurse practioner and a duty GP, so the nurse will ring you within 10 minutes, talk to you, decide if she needs to see you (always in the same part of the day) or straight to duty GP, and can prescribe or shunt you straight into GP if needs more.

You can make a routine appointment as far ahead as you like too

[carelesswhispers]

its getting to the point now where i feel like phoning every monday morning & booking an appointment for the friday just in case the dc's get sick mid week
only joking

[mamas12]

We have the triage system and usually it's okay but this morning the nurse I was speaking to sounded about 12 and was a tad patronising 'advising' me to give ds water and paracetomal duh I am not one of those people who go to the docs at every sniffle so this was serious to me.
I didn't get anyone to look at my ds rash on his eyes which I wanted to happen. Did feel scared that it would be something awful but he is okay though (rash still there).
So maybe she was right but I'd have felt better and less anxious if I knew someone had SEEN the rash, It's hard to describe properly over the phone isn't it.

Sorry I have rambled.

[GoldenSnitch]

My surgery does the doctor ring-back thing too. I actually quite like it. I get to speak to our doctor (who is lovely and never dismissive) and don't have to drag a poorly DS down to the surgery just to be told he needs "fluids and calpol"

Beats pleading my case to some self important receptionist too. Have issues with them ever since one of them refused to let me book a smear test cause I hadn't had a letter telling me I needed one - the fact that I'd had a previous dodgy smear and colcoscopy was apparently irrelevant.

Glad your DD got seen and got her medicine OP

[carelesswhispers]

thanks goldensnitch its terrible to feel you have to argue the toss just to get to see a doctor , our gp is lovely though & made a big fuss over dd , he hasn't seen her since just before her 2nd birthday & shes , 3.5 now
i am that you were refused a smear test , the receptionist told me she had absolutely NO time between appointments at all today , yet i was there for 25 minutes & there was only 1 other person in front of me the whole time ,

[1dilemma]

I wouldn't mind the Doctor ringback system our surgery does the no appointments unless within 48 hours thing ruthlessly.

If I had a pound for every time I have been told to ring back after 2 pm/tomorrow/the weekend I wouldn't need to go to work

It took me 27 phone calls/visits to get a routine 20 week appointment (or is it 24 weeks?) I actually only got one when I was ringing to find out who to send my complaint letter too/inviting them to send me one if they could be bothered and before I even said why I was ringing she offered me an appointment (and it was quieter than it normally is)

[londonartemis]

I am glad your dd saw the doc in the end. I have gone straight to A and E before now and bypassed the head banging frustration about trying to get appointments at the GP's and then waiting to be seen for an hour. The hospital are required to do an initial assessment within 10 mins (?) of the child arriving and then they decide how much of a priority/emergency the child is compared with everyone else, and put them in the queue to see the doctor if necessary.

[carelesswhispers]

thanks londonartemis , she is much better this morning her temperature settled after i got two doses of the antibiotic into her & she has even had a few spoonfuls of rice krispies ,
i understand that the gp's are run off their feet at the moment with the swine flu epidemic etc but i really think our surgery needs to be able to make allowances for young children with high temperatures , its very frustrating .

[TheDMshouldbeRivened]

I've had a few receptionists do the 'but does she need to come today?' thing. Now they know dd is life limited they've stopped arguing. I think the GP had a word or stuck it in the file.
Glad to hear your dd is feeling better this morning.
What swine flu epidemic?

[madamearcati]

I think receptionist are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They get it in the neck from the Gp if they make tha appt and in the neck from Joe Public if they don't.!

Fortunately at our GPs you can always get a same day emergency appintment even if you ring in the late afternoon.I am surprised more GPs aren't worried about the possible legal consequences of refusing to see a patient who claims they have an urgent need

[macdoodle]

bah

[gingerbunny]

we have a receptionist like that at our surgery, if she says no, I ask to speak to the triage nurse (who are brill and always ring back with 30mins).
She once asked me why I needed to speak to the triage nurse and I asked her if she was medically trained, when she said no, I told her that I wouldn't be telling her anything, that shut her up!!!
once the same stupid woman told me I had to come back later to see the doc when I was having an asthma attack!!!! luckily the doc came out of his room and saw me and carried me to his room. i could hear him later on giving the receptionist what for!!

[carelesswhispers]

omg gingerbunny at her trying to send you away while having an asthma attack , if that is NOT an emergency then what is .
yes i get the impression that the receptionist are told to keep the number of patients down to a minimum because while i was on the phone asking for the appointment she said " oh i have already added two patients onto this morning list & ill be in trouble" to which i replied well I'm sorry but i really did not foresee my toddler getting sick & i am very worried about her temperature , she then quizzed me on dd symptoms .

[Goblinchild]

I've had a few problems with receptionists, a couple of times because my Aspie doesn't process pain the same way as an NT, so what would have another child screaming mearly makes him shutdown or he's oblivious.
Fortunately they wear nametags.
So I either ask them for their name if I'm on the phone, or write it down if I'm at the surgery. If they ask why, I just say it's in case the situation deteriorates.
I want the paper trail of events to be as detailed as possible, and to be able to match names to the advice assessments and opinions given. Works better than pleading and arguing.