Has anyone ever called 111 and NOT been told to go to A and E?

[riotlady]

I know they need to stay on the safe side but i feel like it’s their response to everything, which sort of defeats the purpose a little bit.

We got sent to out of hours GP with DD (she was a few months old)

I've had out of hours GP appointments on 2/3 occasions I've called them!

Not been told to go to A&E but referred to the out of hours centre to see a doctor. They seem to refer everyone there.

Id rather have been sent to A&E. Sat for 3 hours at ooh only to be directed to A&E where i spent a further 5 hours

Ive certainly never heard of 111 not referring any one to hospital. As you say - defeats the purpose

They told me to see my GP as soon as possible and to phone when the appointment line opened in the morning - and in the background, they contacted the surgery to say I needed to be seen, so even though I was something like 9th in the queue when I rang, an appointment was reserved for me on the same day when I eventually did get to speak to the receptionist. That was pretty amazing service, IMO, because it's generally impossible to get a same day appointment unless you're very lucky with the phone.

My daughter had concussion and they sent paramedics out to assess her. Depends what you present with.

Well I work as a health advisor for 111, and telling people to go to a&e is not that common. I tend to find that when triaging a small baby that is the outcome even if the parent has said no to all of the symptoms. I have been told that this is because it’s hard to assess someone Over the phone let alone a baby. So we tell them a&e to be on the safe side as we are obviously not there with them. Babies can deteriorate very quickly.

It could also be that people have been spoken to by the clinician and they can sometimes tell the patient to get to a&e instead of sending an ambulance.

I got sent to a local private GP surgery for an out of hours appointment when I had a UTI.

@mali93 999 is the emergency number, not 111. Some people need to get their facts right before posting aggressive messages.

@Mali93- in this country though, 111 is medical advice, 999 is emergency. So answering that it's EMERGENCY in your country, on a brittish site, does smack of rudeness.

I called 111, after a discussion paramedics were sent to make a decision. Was a good thing as a passed out after they arrived and ended up needing treatment. Didn’t need the immediate response 999 would have prevented others from receiving though. I thought it was a fantastic service

Not English actually. And please continue attempting to goad. I'm sure someone will bite for you. GOOD LUCK. 🙄

Anything written in capital's is usually regarded as shouting

Anyway, back to the OP .... I was referred to ooh but it does seem common that they refer people to A&E.

Also not English nor in the U.K.

Given that the vast majority of posters are either UK based or have UK links, I think it is fair to assume that 111 refers to the UK NHS Direct whatever it has been renamed this week.

Take your own advice and be open minded, be aware that not everything is the same as in ‘your’ country.

My experiences to date:

1. 'Watch and wait' plus medication advice given after a call back from a doctor.

2. Out of hours appointment made as a result of call (unexpected).

3. Advised to go to A&E.

4/5) Out of hours appointments x 2 (expected).
111 is advertised as the only way to access out of hours GP appointments in our area.

With my 5 week old baby they told me to wait for a doctor to call back within an hour. We didn’t receive that call until 4 hours later by at which point we thankfully had not waited but gone in to hospital where it turned out he was seriously ill with sepsis and was already on the IV antibiotics that saved him. This still gives me nightmares about what would have happened if we had waited. He is two now and hopefully all the sepsis awareness campaigns mean this doesn’t happen to someone else.

It does mean though that on other occasions when we’ve been sent to A&E or OOH (sometimes unnecessarily) we go without complaint as we’d rather be on the safe side.

Just off the phone to them with regards to my 14 month old and and we've been told to just monitor for the next 6-8 hours and if anything changes to go to A&E directly. She's either brewing chicken pox or scarlet fever as she's been exposed to both in the last 10 days.

Never been sent to A&E. Like a PP I called once when my baby was a few days old and had had some very worrying symptoms (being overly sleepy more than normal new born, breathing was off etc)) was told I’d get a call back within 4 hours but something felt off so I called 999 and thank god I did. The lovely paramedics who came to us blue lighted us to hospital immediately. I dread to think what would have happened if I’d waited for my call back

I've used 111 three times for my DS. First time (9mo) was v high temp and not very responsive in early hours, had nurse call back in an hour, then advised to see GP first thing. Turned out to be tonsilitis. Second time (18mo) DS fell out of high chair, banged his head and was bleeding from a cut on the face. I rang while waiting for a lift to a&e to see if I needed to look out for anything on the way and they ran through a thorough checklist and agreed a&e was necessary - he had to have stitches and be assessed for head injury. Last time (21mo) early hours, waited 2hrs for call back, turns out it was night terrors and had stopped by the time they rang back. Rather scary at the time as he'd never had one before, but triage couldn't make out anything medical, so referred a call back which I didn't end up needing.

Yes I did when my 1 year old broke her leg. I was v unhappy as my call was to find out where to go for an X-ray not whether to ‘self-care’ or not (which I apparently could do at home - I’m convinced they used the wrong algorithm). I demanded a call back from someone qualified and when the nurse rang she told me to go to A&E immediately.

Whenever it's regarding DS we always end up having an ambulance called out to us. The paramedics, luckily, understand that it's 111 being over cautious and usually enjoy the quick cuppa.

For me it's always meant I've been able to get an out of hours Dr appointment.

So never actually been told to go to A&E

111 sent a doctor to our house, made us appointments at out of hours, when they suggested calling 999 they then hung up on me.