To be cross with the Doctor i've just seen in A&E?

[celebmum]

Long Story but basically, 5month old baby being sick, very sick projectile/bile vomit and not just baby sick. Also dry nappies and very sleepy, been a few days but worse in last 48hrs.. called NHS direct helpline thingy, they were really nice and suggested we take baby to A&E to be checked over by a doctor, to ensure that he wasn't dehydrated or anything serious.
Did so and was seen by triage nurse fairly quickly who said that as he was a baby they would aim to get Doc to see him within the hour as she wanted him checked over too.. fair enough they were busy.
2.5hrs later they announced all the children in A&E waiting to be seen should go through to outpaitients to be seen by GP. We go through, are first to be seen but Doc just was not bothered at all and obviously just wanted to go home for his dinner! He asked no questions, hardly even looked at baby. Asked why we came to A&E, i explained what NHS Direct lady said and he said not to listen to them as they don't give good advice and just send everyone there and waste his time??
We didn't chose to spend our sunday afternoon in a&e, we didn't go for a laugh.. my baby has obviously not been well and all i wanted was for a trained professional to give him the once over. I am always respectful and quite in awe of doctors but this miserable old sod was useless!

sorry.. rant over!

London teaching hospital zipzap? Could be the same.

I did have questions, having learnt from before. Got answers like 'it's you call', 'if you need too' etc!

Celebmum, seems it's sadly common

Celebmum - hows your LO today ??

let this be a lesson to you. call a fecking ambulance next time.

celeb mum and strawberrycake

Big hugs to your precious babies!

Wow,

This is awful.

How long has your baby been vomiting OP? Projectile vomiting says pyloric stenosis to me, but 5 months is a little old for a first presentation (and I'm only a final year student - not yet a doctor)

Doctors should NEVER make the parents feel that they are wasting their time. I have to admit that you do have many parents in paediatric A&E with children who do not need to be there but it is better to be safe than sorry and doctors should strive to make sure that any encounter with a doctor is positive to encourage parents to seek help when they need it.

I am appalled by how you have been treated and it comes down to something that I mentioned in another thread (what makes a good doctor?) - communication. Your baby may well have been OK but the doctor should check him properly and communicate well!

On the plus side, I did my paediatrics in Derby and the doctors always took the parents seriously there. I was taught that often parents will know before the doctors if something is seriously wrong. I think that moving to the Midlands is the way forward

So sorry you've had such terrible experiences. When ds was younger, we took him to a&e on the advice of nhs direct, and tbh it was a waste of their time, we were concerned that he was dehydrated, the dr who saw him told us he wasn't and explained how to check by squeezing the tips of his fingers. Looking back we were panicking, but at no time was I made to feel stupid, they only looked at it as an opportunity to reassure us. They also gave us a script for ibuprofen. I would definitely complain about the doctor you saw, it shouldn't be like that.

I can so relate! My Doctor is completely useless.
I have taken my little one a couple of times and ended up in A and E that same day!
I also went to my Doctor last week because of chest pain (I have history of DVT and APS) She didnt even listen to my chest and sent me home with parecetemol. I phoned my Dad who is a former Doc and he told me to get someone else to look at my chest asap as I was high risk for pulmonary Embolism. I went down to A and E and they treated me as if I was having a PE from the start and did x rays,scans and bloods as soon as possible.

I do not have faith in my GP at all and I feel the only way to get stuff done if you feel there is any danger or are unhappy about something more serious is to go to A and E because the GP's in this country just don't have the time and don't seem to care.