NHS issues - urgent advice appreciated please.

[OldQueen1969]

Hi there all,

Would appreciate some advice for a friend of mine who is currently in hospital and seems to be at some risk from some sort of system cock up.

I'll start by saying this is not about bashing the frontline staff who are obviously doing their best under pressure and with poor resources.

So my friend L who I saw yesterday evening had the beginnings of a tooth abcess and planned on sorting it with the dentist today - he's had them before and knows the drill so to speak, and would have done the usual routine except by this morning his face had swelled dangerously and his eye was closing, so he rang 111 and they advised A&E.

He and my other friend M for support went to one A&E (we have two on opposite sides of our town) at around 1.00pm. After three hours there it was concluded that no-one there was insured to go near teeth so they had to drive across to the other where they have been since. The swelling has got worse and L is actually crying with pain (chap in his early 30s and not a wuss by any means).

It was decided he should be admitted as he now has a fever and high temperature, but they didn't have any male beds available for a while so they had to wait in A&E. No meds could be administered until he was admitted.

He has now been given a bed, but apparently he can't be given any meds because his admission is nit showing on the system yet and until this happens they can't prescribe etc because they need to know where to "bill the meds to". It's nothing to do with cross referencing for allergies or anything. I have asked all the logical things and M is messaging me as time goes on. They are both really worried as he is now "ill" with this infected abcess and treatment is being withheld, and his pain is unbearable.

A nurse tried to get a canula in in preparation, but that went wrong as the vein was missed and has caused further distress. I guess that happens but it's not helped the situation.

My main question is whether this system failure is a common thing? And what should they do now? L has been seen by doctors etc but all say no system confirmation, no meds. Surely that can't be right as he is getting visibly worse - I've seen pictures and he looks terrible.

Any advice / opinions gratefully received.

Glad he ia feeling better. Im just back from spending nearly £200 at the nhs dentist. I agree that it can be difficult to see an emergency dentist unless you're lucky enough to live near a dental hospital. 111 now direct you to a&e out of hours.

@HappyHammy

Thank you and I hope you recover soon too x

Trouble is these days sometimes if you don't often need dental or medical treatment, it's a bit daunting to find how much has changed. And sometimes technology seems to make things even more complicated. The price of progress I guess.

You weren't being paranoid OP, don't worry!

Glad it has been sorted, they should have removed anything that might cause an abscess in future so fingers crossed.

NHS dentistry is very poor in some areas, there just isn't enough provision and it's very oversubscribed. 111 shouldn't direct to a&e as there's very little than can be done unless it's a big facial swelling, but at the same time I understand people get desperate

NHS provision is patchy at best. You can thank consecutive governments for making it so unattractive to have an NHS contract. In some cases impossible.

Doesn't change the fact that 95% of dental disease is preventable. Brushing, smoking, sugar... MN is the biggest denier of this fact that I've ever come across. It doesn't stop being a fact just because people don't like it.

So glad I don't practise anymore, Sunday clinics with half a dozen 5 year olds in pain due to poor parenting.
The poor patients like PP's mother would have had to wait hours to be seen after them.