Suspected scarlet fever but can’t get through to 111

[redjellyshoes]

My DD aged 6 has been feeling unwell for a few days - sore throat, very bad cough and a high temperature on and off.

I realised this afternoon that she has “strawberry tongue” i.e. white coated with red spots. So I think she has scarlet fever.

The UKHSA advice is to call 111 to get antibiotics but I’ve now been on hold for almost 2 hours with no answer.

I’m not really sure what to do - can I wait until morning and call GP at 8am? Or at what point should I just take her to A&E, how bad does she need to be? She’s unwell but not to the extent that I’d be really worried about her if it weren’t for the recent news.

Sorry to ask this on MN but not really sure where else to go if 111 won’t answer me 🤷‍♀️

Our local pharmacist (part of a large chain) has posted on our town's facebook page today to say that they cannot prescribe antibiotics without a prescription, so will people please stop asking.

@pinneddownbytabbies thanks. That's why I said I didn't know.

For those recommending the online webpage - it says you can't use if for the under 5s. I know the OP's DC is 6, but just to not for other people reading the thread. When you call 111 you do have to select a different call option if you are calling about an under 5, but I don't know if it gets you into a priority queue - it took 1 hour 15 to get through.

I really wouldn't go to A and E unless you have to - even with a separate kids A and E it was chaos yesterday evening with people sitting on the floor to wait and ambulances queuing outside. It took 1.5 hours to get triaged, and waiting area gossip said even for majors the queue was 1 hour - we were being told 6 hours normal wait. After all they were giving out prescriptions rather than antibiotics (I'm assuming to free up staff) so you still have to trek round pharmacies to find one someone to issue the drug.

If you have a GPs who is good and a child who is well enough to manage overnight, waiting to Monday sounds a lot easier!

Pre antibiotics around one in five died of scarlet fever. It’s only no longer serious because of them but without them it’s potentially very dangerous. Getting them antibiotics quickly surely is what stops vast majority of cases becoming serious so better have 10 people at urgent care getting them than a couple at A&E needing to be admitted because they’ve become really poorly.

Why all this stress to get antibiotics when threshold is lowered.

It's such a huge watse of time these poor parents and staff dealing with endless phone calls when we all know it will end in anitbiotocs!

Where's the health people like Chris whitty?

It's scary, where are the anitbiotocs?

The stress of calling endless places with a child going downhill?

My son developed the scarlet fever rash on saturday morning. Phoned 111, on hold 1.5 hours then told would get a clinician call back. Sat pm local service got in touch and said a doctor would call in 4 hours. Doctor didn't call.

Ended up taking son to a&e 7am sunday. Wait was 4 hours and probably helped getting there early. Got prescription but only have tablet form which is a bit of a pain to crush and disguise but huge relief to have something at last. Got home at 1pm and the 111 doctor finally called 5min after I walked in the door. She did however tell me the hospital prescription was the wrong dose so now need to get it altered 😖

It does seem like an easy fix would be to let triage nurse or pharmacist prescribe antibiotics in this scenario. We had to take DD to OOO on Thursday night as we hadn’t been able to see a GP Wednesday or Thursday inspite of calling at opening time on second day and then she got worse and had a febrile seizure. She had a temp back up to 40 within an hour of having paracetamol. It was stupid how much time for various people it took up when if she’d just got the antibiotics on Wednesday she’d likely have been close to back to normal by Thursday night. She’s been taking them 3 days now and she’s pretty much back to normal already.

Our local chemist's all have said they cant prescribe or swab!

But they're also out of amoxicillin and the phen... Cillin ( what ever its called)
I know as previously said 2 hours driving round and then calling they all said the same.
Its scary.