Would you call 111 or wait to see GP?

[Dropdownx]

My 4 year old DS has had a terrible chesty barky sounding cough for coming on 4 weeks now. It started off fairly mild but is definitely getting worse, particularly at night. It's taking up to 2 hours of coughing before he finally manages to fall asleep. Hes generally fine otherwise, had a temp here and there but it's gone with Calpol. No temp at the moment. He had a nosebleed on Monday, I think from the force of the cough, and so I phoned our GP but the appointment is not until next Friday. DS has got up this morning and had another coughing fit (there's no "whoop" noise as far as I can tell) and is a bit upset because he's tired. DS has ASD and seeing anyone other than our own GP is difficult for him so I'm unsure whether to wait until our appointment or ring 111 for advice. I know a cough longer than 3 weeks needs to be seen to but I don't know how urgently? Any advice appreciated.

Ring your gp today tell them it's worse you need an earlier appointment

Does "next Friday" mean a week from tomorrow? He should be better by then if he doesn't need treatment; else it's a long time to suffer if this has been going on for many days already.

How difficult will he find unfamiliar GP? I think I'd see each out-of-his-comfort-zone experience as something he has to learn to deal with, only practice will help him learn to do that.

Emergency appt . Today . Good luck x

At our GP if you ring up they ask if you beef the appointment urgently and then if you say yes they find you one that day or the next. The trouble is when they say "is it urgent" it's hard to say yes as you think "what if someone else is worse?".

This does sound urgent and I wouldn't want to wait another 8 days for a doctor. I would ring this morning at opening time and ask for an urgent/ same day appointment.

ragged Yes a week from tomorrow, this has been going on almost 4 weeks now. He will find it very difficult to the point where he will scream and lash out at the doctor and try to throw things around. I don't like putting people through that.

Thanks everyone. I will try and get an appointment when the GP opens. They're very strict with their emergency appointments so hopefully this will qualify for one!

I suppose if he's had 4 weeks already with a croup like cough, then what's another week?

But what I said about he may never get better at dealing with new people or situations without practice is also true. You have to live with another week of croup / bad nights or the 20 unpleasant minutes in doctor's office. Sorry the choices aren't easy ones.

If you don't get an apt trust your gut
call 111 and then they may advise he needs to be seen today which you can go back to the drs with that and they should have a duty doctor and they will get you a call back which can result in an appt

Update?

Ring first thing and say it’s urgent and I need one. All surgeries have to hold so many appointments back for book on the day.
It sounds like Croup. I used to sit in the bathroom with my child, run all the hot taps and get the steam from the hot water on the chest which seem to help calm things down.
Hope he gets well soon

Coldness helps croup, oddly. I used to take ds for a quick walk in cold night air which settled it.