to state the NHS has gone to the dogs, run by monkeys and staffed by halfwits?

[DameHermione]

The saga........
DD has infected looking pussy blistery spots.

It is friday evening. No hope of seeing locsl GP until at least monday.

I ask the MN hive mind for advice. Possibly impetigo. Definitely sore and pussy. OOH is suggested.

I trundle off 15 miles to OOH.

We arrive. There is a notice pinned to the door, 'If you are not expected please report to the Emergency Department'.

Odd. And not what it was a few months ago but off we trot to A&E round the corner.

In A&E i say to the receptionist 'We came for the OOH GP.'

'No problem' she says. Takes some details and we get asked to take a seat.

An hour later DDs name is called.

'Senior Sister' triages DD.

First she looks me up and down and snaps 'who are you?'

I explain what the problem is and say once again 'we came for the xxx unit, the out of hours GP'

She asks not once, not twice but Four times how long DD has been pussy. I tell her Four times it has been getting worse over the last few days.

She shouts at me. 'This should be seen by your GP'.

I replied 'I know. Thats why we came to the OOH unit.'

At this point she tells me the OOH unit has moved 5 more miles away.

Then she tells me to take DD to the GP tomorrow.

I say 'but tomorrow is saturday, which is why we csme to the OOH unit'

I am then told i need to take DD the extra 5 miles to the real OOH unit which closed in 5 minutes.

I give up at this point and suggest maybe they should put a notice on the door of the now ex-OOH unit or tell their receptionists to redirect people.

Only 'they can't do that as they aren't clinical and patients need triaging'


So at this point i tell the half-witted monkey who is masquerading as a nurse that as i too am a nurse, with considerably more braincells than her i will just treat DDs pus myself.

i might then have gone and purloined approriate dressings snd stuff from my mates upstairs but that would be theiving so i shant admit to it oh no

I will be wtiting to PALS.

[pumpkinsweetie]

Yabu- if you saw what they do for cancer patients, you would see just how great the nhs still is.
There are parts of it that need improving but without the nhs, we would be stuck paying for highly expensive treatment.

[AnnieArsehole]

Yabu

Only have admiration and respect for the nhs.

I had to use 999 a few weeks back for what turned out for kidney stones (yes,renal colic hurts like hell on earth) and can't fault paramedics and a&e,ward staff.prompt,professional and FREE treatment? Yeah it's going to the dogs huh

[Shiftinglard]

As somebody who has worked in A&E and a minor injuries unit, what I used to find unreasonable was the monkeys who waited all week with ailments which should be seen by the GP and then deciding on Friday night they really need to be seen and use an emergency service.

What I find even more astounding is that a nurse would do this

YABU you should have taken your daughter to the GP in the week.

[shergar]

YABU. If you need to see a GP out of hours, you ring the usual number for your GP surgery and follow the instructions given on the answering machine. You get given a second number to ring out of hours, you speak to a nurse, a GP rings you back and you get an appointment at an OOH centre if he/she feels you need one. It's really not that difficult. Turning up unannounced and expecting to be seen anyway is not the way to do it, particularly when you don't know that an OOH centre even exists where you've turned up and you end up dragging a child with a highly contagious skin condition around with you in an A&E waiting area filled with sick old people etc.

I know who I think the halfwit is, and it's not the NHS staff in this saga.

[Aboutlastnight]

I've just spent my night dispatching ambulances, drs, district nurses - half wits in charge of half wits!

[Sirzy]

Who would have thought half wits could save so many lives hey!

[MyBaby1day]

NO!, YANBU, the NHS has really gone down the pan!. Something needs to be done about it!. Yes, run by monkeys and staffed by halfwits as you said. It's true!.

[cutegorilla]

Aren't hospital and Drs waiting rooms always full of infectious people? If everyone who was ill and potentially infectious had a private room it could get a bit ridiculous!

[Latara]

ROFL

[Greatauntirene]

how is pusy pussy pussie pusie pusey spelled?

Well don't look up pussy on google.

[McHappyPants2012]

so as a nurse, you took a possible infectious child into a busy waiting room. Never heard of infection control i take it.

I work in the nhs ( Domestic) and if i suspected an infection that was ozing i would phone ahead and make sure they had a private room to stop other people getting the infection.

[Latara]

I will defend my local OOH surgery - they will take walk-ins if not busy - if not you have to phone the GP for the emergency number.
They do triage you on the phone via a nurse, then the GP will phone you (IME quite soon after you call) - if they think it is an urgent issue that they can sort out then they will give you an appt time relevant to the urgency.
If they think you are worrying too much they will reassure over the phone, but tell you to phone back if you need to.
The receptionist is usually a paramedic filling in - they are always lovely & sympathetic.

If you have a potential life threatening or disabling problem like chest pain / severe allergic reaction / suspected stroke / severe injury / vomiting blood etc then phone 999 immediately - paramedics would rather visit someone whose symptoms / injuries aren't as serious as they thought, than find a body IYKWIM.

Anything else serious but you aren't sure what to do - then phone the emergency GP number.

[aldiwhore]

YANBU to think a walk in centre is something to be walked in to... however, out of hours is different (well it is round here) along with the name change (from WIC to OOH) came a new shiny appointment system which adds at least 5 hours to the proceedings, sometimes more 'if A+E is busy' (because the steal Drs from the OOH surgery to save people's lives the selfish bastards).

YANBU to feel frustrated at bad management. YABU to refer to someone as a Monkey, when you're probably the 3743020484645 non emergency OOH patient they've had to explain the terrible management to, and they can't exactly control things can they?

You obviously knew how to treat this ailment, do you not stock up on Fucidin cream? You're a bit of a monkey nurse yourself then aren't you?

YANBU to being utterly pissed off at the illogical management of OOH surgeries, that they're getting less efficient not more, and its nothing to do with staff but managers and they're bright bloody ideas.

[Latara]

haha at the red wine - it's the favourite drink of many nurses.

I don't drink because i'm angelicly saintly (on meds).
But when i did i never enjoyed red wine.

Tip: when you get home have a relaxing hot drink instead; if you do have alcohol & feel cross then STEP AWAY from the internet...

It's easy to get things out of proportion when you are already stressed.
But you should have gone to a late opening pharmacy - they sell lotions for impetigo (if it was that).

With rashes - first do the glass test for menigitis / sepsis type rash, if it's that type of rash THEN do go to A&E.
If the patient has a high temp but it's not a sepsis rash - then phone your emergency GP.
As a nurse, you will know the symptoms of bad infection & cellulitis; if you suspect that then also phone the emergency GP.
Otherwise go to the local pharmacist for some lotion / calamine / anti-histamine & see the GP during normal hours.

Good luck for your DD's Maths GCSE - not fun, i hate maths! x

[rookanga]

Plus the cost of inappropriate GP attendance with dental problems...

[Grumpystiltskin]

Apparently each emergency attendance cost the NHS £40ish when we were responsible, now it's more like £300. Ridiculous. Short sighted but we did all tell them this is what would happen.

[Sirzy]

I have never known an OOH where you didn't need to phone, be traiged then go in.

The NHS is fantastic on the whole and something very much taken for granted

[rookanga]

It sounds a bit like the GP thing then, taking responsibility away for OOH cover from the individual practices and then being surprised that it is expensive to replace.

[Grumpystiltskin]

Rook, it definitely is the way services are commissioned. When I first became an NHS dentist we were responsible for our own patients in an emergency and would go in, open up the surgery and fix them. the government used to pay us per "opening" and then for the treatment. So if you opened once & saw three people you would get one opening then three whatevers. Extractions, temp fillings etc.

Now the PCT is supposed to provide all ooh dental services. This is exceptionally expensive because i will get paid the same whether we see 12 patients or 2 (royal wedding bank hol only gave us 2!). There is also a nurse and a receptionist who must be paid, the result is a short service so the PCT can tick the box to say they're covered when actually the service is too short.

[DameHermione]

BigH have you actually read any of what i wrote?

I. Know.

I am an arse. I am an arse who knows nothing about skin. I am an arse who thought the Walk In Centre was just that. It was last time I looked.

I work.

Said pus had got worse when I got home from work. Which happened to be on friday evening.

Knowing nothing about skin or pus I asked for advice.


I tried.

Obviously I screwed up.

BUT..... There is no call for being spoken to like dirt and there should have been an easier way to point me in the right direction.

[rookanga]

Are you for real?

[DameHermione]

I know. Its what i'm best at. In my defence i'd had quite a lot of red wine when i wrote the original rant.

Also work got in the way of normal hours GP appointment. and By the time it had turned nasty it was after hours

[bighooraytoday]

'to state the NHS has gone to the dogs, run by monkeys and staffed by halfwits?'

Obviously, yes, YABU to state this on the basis of one experience and v rude.

Yes, the signposting should have been better and yes, the nurse sounds rude but I don' think you handled the situation v sensibly either.

Your DD has had the spots for several days but you don't see the GP.

Instead of making your own decision (you say you are a nurse), you ask MN.

On the basis of that, you suddenly decide that it may be impetigo which needs seeing immediately on a Friday evening! As a nurse, surely you must know that waiting until the morning is not going to make any difference (assuming that DD is not unwell which you don't mention). A&E is notoriously busy on Fri/ Sat evenings (which you should also know as a nurse).

Instead of calling the OOH service to find out the available services (whether on Friday/ Sat), you decide to just turn up. A lot of OOH services operate on booked appointments not sit and wait and it would have been much better to have checked and not just turned up, particularly with a young child in the evening. It is your fault that you didn't do this and that it added to your irritation of being passed from pillar to post.

At this point, you should have gone home and called, not gone to A&E. It is clearly not an accident or an emergency if she has had it for several days and is not unwell.

So, overall, the situation was totally avoidable and mostly of your making. It's not fair of you not to think the situation through properly (particularly as a nurse), and then blame everyone else without taking any responsibility yourself.

[rookanga]

Grumpy - Other OOH services cant turn people away just because they have seen some predetermined number of patients. Maybe its a problem with the way that services are commissioned?

[nevergoogle]

YOU should have taken her to the GP earlier during normal hours.
It is YOUR responsibility.
If you knew what the problem was and could treat it yourself...WTF?
Stop it now, you're making a halfwit of yourself.