2+ hour wait for call from out of hours?

[dribbleface]

called ooh for ds2 aged 5 months at 7, as coughing all day but started to wheeze. ds1 has bronchiolitis at this age so I'm hot on any sign of it. didn't want to do a and e if i can help it on a Saturday night. still waiting for call back, well they called to say sorry we're busy. he's settled a bit now and asleep on dh but i know he'll be bad when he wakes. if he does\is I'll head to casualty but am i being unreasonable to think that's a long time to wait to even speak to doctor never mind get seen.

Did they give you a reference number? I had to phone OOH today because DD1 stumbled over DH's feet and went headlong into the corner of a fish tank cabinet.

OOH said I would get a call within an hour and gave me a reference number which I could phone them with if she got worse in the meantime. They actually phoned within 10 minutes and advised me to take her down to the walk-in centre.

If you feel your DS has got worse, phone them back. If he seems very poorly, go to A&E. Having said that, it's a good sign that his breathing has improved when he's sleeping.

They usually triage the calls so it may be that it's just been marked non-urgent.

Of course with breathing if you get worried you should go straight to A&E

If his symptoms change or worsen, call them back.

It's Saturday night, v busy. But any doubts about your DC condition, phone them straight back. Hope all is ok

10 years ago I had a 4+hour wait (was Friday eveing) on dd1, aged 7/8 months with symptoms that (given to the triage) could have been meningitis. (Knew it wasn't). Apparently we were high priority . Wonder how long low priority waited?

Very often there's only one doctor on duty, fielding the calls and actually seeing the people they ask to come in. The assumption is that if it's urgent you'll go to A & E. I've had to see the out of hours doctor twice in the last few months and tbh have been incredibly impressed with the service both times, I do think the callback time was about 2 hours iirc, but better to be waiting at home for a call than waiting in a walk in centre surrounded by sick people if you don't really need to be imo.

lougle hope dd1 is ok? no reference number but did call back to check and then they called me about 10 minutes later to say sorry for delay we are busy. not sure whether to go now but if i don't have a feeling it will be casualty in the middle of the might. ds1 has temperature too. Kid's!

Yy - you could be sat in OOH waiting to be seen.

lot's of posts whilst i was typing. guess your right that they assume if your that worried you would go to a & e, just have poorly babies, ds1 was really ill at this age and i panic a little with anything to do with chests, ds1 has asthma too so even more paranoid. I'll stop moaning!

I've done the same thing in the past-called at about 7, waited for a call back and DS went to sleep. I went to bed after 11 and they still hadn't called back.

They eventually rang at 3AM and wanted me to wake DS up to check him over . I said no....

hate not have!

thanks for all the replies. ended up in a & e, doctor said virus but to see GP Monday if no better. we shall see. ooh called back after 4 hours.

Glad he's ok, dribbleface.

Thanks for asking about DD1 - she had a deep gash in her head so when we got to OOH they glued it. I have to say I was very impressed with their manner.

The receptionist was quite rude and dismissive, but once we got into triage, which was a 'fit to wait' assessment, I asked for an idea of the wait time, so that I could deal with DD1 - she doesn't do waiting well (SN) so I need to know how long I have to 'spin her out'.

Once the triage nurse was told that, she offered us a separate room to wait, then one of the HCA's cleaned the wound, glued it, got it checked by a nurse and we were off. Very helpful.

I'm glad they were helpful, to be honest in the past they have been great. I'm guessing they were just exceptionally busy, I'm feeling much more reasonable today! Its hard to be reasonable isn't it when your little one in ill.