to think NHS direct are a waste of time?

[Oakmaiden]

I probably shouldn't have phoned them at all....

Situation was - my daughter (who is 7, and frankly should know better) swallowed a piece of plastic, and immediately complained that she thought it was stuck in her throat. Noticing immediately that she seemed to be complaining well, and thus her airways were not blocked, I gave her some fruit to eat and a drink. And then sent her to bed.

In the morning she was STILL complaining. So my husband and I had a row about whether or not to take her to the doctors (I said no, she was clearly fine and had probably scratched her throat when she swallowed the plastic - my husband thinks I am a cruel and heartless mother who takes unnecessary risks with my children's health...)

So - in a spirit of compromise, I agreed to phone NHS direct. (I don't mind wasting their time, for some reason!) Anyway, NHS direct recommended that I take my daughter to the hospital A&E immediately, and took all my details, and checked which one I was going to so they could ensure I had followed their instructions. So muttering bitterly under my breath I dragged dd and her brothers to the hospital, sat for 3 hours in A&E to see a doctor who just peered down her throat and said he was sure she would be fine. Which was what I had been saying all along. But was a complete waste of his time.

This is not the first time I have been in touch with NHS either, and from personal experience I would reckon they must send about 50% of callers off to A&E. Which is insane. Or I think so anyway. Please tell me I am right. :)

They are not going to tell you not to worry about something like that. Intuitively you know it's ok, but they don't know that. The best thing they can do is tell you to get it looked at. She is complaining. How do they know there isn't a piece of plastic that is in there, that is going to come back up, cause her to choke and block an airway, or stuck in her throat and causing infection? They don't!

I would have done exactly the same thing.

Mybe A&E is better equipped for looking down your daughter's throat or for reacting if plastic turns out to be toxic etc.

When it comes to that Tebbit- - how did the Dr know - all he did was peer into her mouth. There could still have been something stuck in her throat, and he wouldn't have known. But he felt that after the period of time that had passed it was very unlikely - I guess I just think that sending me to A&E for that was not an efficient use of resources.

If you don't think they're any good you shouldn't be taking up their time then.

It's not compulsary to ring them.

They're there to help people, it's not a consultation so they have to be careful.

But like grumpy says if they're too cautious people whinge, if they're not cautious enough people whinge.

You asked them (because your DH was worried) and they said they've got someone to look at it, you let them, they said it was alright.

You'd think you'd be pleased she was fine and they took the time to look...

They're a pile of poo.

I am, however, interested to discover that there are others who DON'T feel NHS Direct are a complete waste of time.

Hm, maybe I need to learn not to ask questions when I actually only want the answer to affirm my point of view. Not actually talking about my posting here - it IS interesting to know that they have been an extremely useful service to some people - but I only phoned them cos I thought they would say she would be fine and it would get dh off my back!

Maybe it depends who you speak to? The nurse I spoke to sounded older so maybe more experience dealing with young children and their seemingly frantic need to shove things in their mouths.

They asked their usual list of questions about breathing, whether me or DP could feel anything from the outside etc and the nurse concluded that nothing was lodged in DD's throat as she wasn't struggling to breathe and could drink from her sippy cup (which she was doing by the time I spoke to the nurse). Like I said, she advised that if DD started to breathe funny, gag or vomited after eating or drinking to take her to A and E to be on the safe side.

I do concede I've been quite lucky WRT advice I've got from them- I know people who have had less than good advice. They were even nice to me when I rang them after giving DD 2 spoons of amoxicilan instead of 1. I was meant to give one spoon of that and 2 spoons of calpol but mixed it up I have no defence except I was bloody tired and exhaustion makes me to do stupid things. Again they said very unlikely any harm had been done and to contact out of hours GP (was weekend) if DD had anything worse than loose bowel movements for next 24 hours. I was sure they'd have a go at me for that one!

NHS Direct (while they did send us to OOH) probably saved my 10 day old's life. He'd been vomiting all night, couldn't keep anything down.
DH was tempted to wait until HV's visit that morning, I phoned NHSD, advised to go to OOH, 24 hours later we were in a different city being told that DS2 had survived cardiac surgery. If we'd waited until the HV's arrival, he'd likely have suffered left ventricle damage or gone into complete heart failure.

That must have been scary Whyriskit

We phoned them on New Year's Day when ds2 ran full pelt into the bathroom doorframe. He didn't knock himself out, but had a massive egg shaped lump/bruise spring up immediately, with a line (imprint of the frame edge) straight down the middle, from top of his forehead to the bridge of his nose.

They asked if he was wobbly or confused (permanent state!) and whether he could count fingers held up. He was 14 months at the time. Hell if he could do that I'd have been calling Mensa

That ended with a trip to A&E. I'd been veering toward that anyway, with him being so little, but dh wasn't sure. I resisted the urge to say I told you so.

Never been so terrified in my life. Now, at 7 months, he's a thriving little boy. His consultant holds him up to students as an example of how quickly babies can recover from major surgery.