to stay home rather than trekking across the city with DS3 to see a doctor? (Long)

[BoffinMum]

DS3 (age 3) has a kiddie virus, all the usual symptoms, but with the slightly concerning addition of ice cold feet, so I looked on NHS Direct for advice. He does not have a headache and he can look at light, so I wasn't hugely worried, but I thought I ought to take it reasonably seriously, considering the cold feet thing. NHS Direct advised me to ring my GP, which I did. I have been instructed by the Out Of Hours service to trek across the city with my very sleepy, poorly DS3 to get him looked at, which also incidentally means taking two other children with me (one of whom is knackered and may be going down with something himself) and causing a great faff. I am knackered too, and my SPD is bad today. And they told me that 'illness is dynamic, so even if the GP thinks he is OK during the appointment, you will need to keep him under close observation'.

Here's the thing. I actually want a home visit for once. I don't want to trek across the city in pain, with DS3 in pyjamas and a blankie, and sit around in some remote suburb until some doctor deigns to see me, patronise me and probably just send me to sit at A and E all night anyway, after being triaged by about five nurses, all of whom ask us the same things, before we are sent home at 3am feeling like complete idiots and slight abusers of the NHS.

I know all the arguments about how inefficient home visits are, how greedy we all are for wanting them, how terribly BUSY and IMPORTANT doctors are and how they can't be expected to pander to the social needs of their patients, with all they have to do, and, most crucially, how feckless people demand home visits because they have coughs or hangovers, and ring for ambulances because they have run out of Tampax or whatever. I really do know all that.

But just today, I would really, really like someone to come to have a look at DS3 in his home, in the context of his family, and tell me how worried I ought to be.

That's all. Just one of the six or eight doctors from the local practice to pop up the road and do a bit of a Doctor Finlay.

AIBU?

Looking at the rash, and having read a couple of GP type things, I think it's Roseola Infantum actually. I would put a fiver on that, anyway.

Roseola infantum (sixth disease)

A generalised rose-pink rash on the trunk and proximal extremities is seen.
Check

Red papules and erosions at the soft palate and uvula (Nagayama spots) are characteristic.
Didn't look

A high fever for 3 to 5 days (with the appearance of rash during defervescence),
Check

mild upper respiratory symptoms,
Check

and seizures may be reported.
Luckily not

Cervical or occipital lymphadenopathy may be present.
Didn't check

Occasionally, encephalopathy and aseptic meningitis develop.
Presumably this is an extremely rare complication. So no.

Boffin mum - I have just picked up this thread (v slow sorry) and wanted to say that I am very close to you (unless you live miles from work/west site) so if you need urgent help sometime do pm me!

in regards to the op
i have phoned the out of hours ,and asked to speak to a doctor for advice and one has always rung me back- sometimes giving advice and sometimes asking me to come straight in.

51wksapart, that's incredibly kind of you and I would do the same for you if necessary . I think we're about 15 minutes away from each other from the sound of it. I am near Waitrose.