My 3yo has an ear infection last week. He was grumpy and had a temperature so I took him to GP on Tuesday. GP told me just to give him rest and it would probably clear up on his own.
On Friday evening he got worse, his temperature was up to 40, vomiting, whole face and neck swollen on one side. He wasn’t speaking coherently, just moaning. I phoned 111 who told me to take him to MIU which is over an hour drive away. There is a MIU at the nearest hospital (45 minute drive) but you have to wait in A and E before you can access it. The A and E wasn’t accepting patients (is that even allowed? 
) due to being so busy so it had to be the further one.
Dh wasn’t back from work so I had to take my ASD 6yo as well. I finally get there to be told that they don’t see children at that location, I needed to go to the next town (another 30 minute drive away). At this point dc1 is banging his head on the wall, dc2 is barely conscious and I start crying. A passing doctor very kindly tells me that she’ll see dc2. She puts a thing into his ear in order to look in, it knocks something and an incredible amount of green pus comes pouring out of his ear. Dc2 immediately feels better, temperature down and we’re given a course of AB’s and sent on our way.
I have been very lucky with dc’s health and haven’t had to use any kind of OOH’s places before. Is this normal? I live in a fairly large conurbation and it’s over an hour drive to see a doctor OOH’s. There was a brilliant one both in my town and in the next town along but they’ve been shut in the last few years. I was also amazed at 111 sending me to a unit that didn’t accept children. Surely they should know these things? I don’t expect them to have amazing medical knowledge but they should at least know the appropriate place to send us?