What is happening? Out of hours doctor.

[SunShinesBrightly]

Please could someone explain how it works because I feel IABU and quite prepared to be told so.
Been waiting at the out of hours drop in clinic with very poorly DD who has tonsillitis.
It started on Friday night and I’ve booked a telephone appointment at our GP for Monday via the on-line request form.

Anyway, we have been here for 2 hours and only one of the 5 people waiting has been seen. That was an hour ago. 4 people are still waiting and nobody has joined the queue for over an hour.

What are the doctors doing? Are they responding to 111 telephone calls in between seeing the patients waiting?

One of the nurses has just gone on a break. Nobody is coming or going or being seen.

I asked and the receptionist just said they were very busy 😕

Hoping someone who knows will come and tell me what goes on behind the scenes.

Just to add, we came to the out of hour rather than waiting for the telephone appointment on Monday because my DD’s condition has worsened since Friday night.
She’s currently asleep next to me in the waiting room.

There’s probably only one doctor (nobody wants to work in OOH so they struggle to cover shifts) and they may be doing advice calls or out on a home visit.

No idea sorry

Is it just a walk in OOH? We've always gone via 111 who make you an appointment so you dont have to wait around.

Hope you get seen soon and DD feels better

Is it an out of hours clinic at an A+E? Sometimes in our local hospitals if the A+E is at capacity the OOH and UCC doctors have to go to the A+E side as there are critically unwell patients and not enough qualified clinicians. Also see cardiac arrests etc where it really is all hands on deck.

Is it walk in or did you get an app made by 111?

There’ll be one doctor.
They’ll be seeing patients, calling patients and sorting appointments with 111.
If it’s anything like our OOH and A&E, they’ll be the A&E GP too and be in constant contact with them about patients and may even have to go into A&E through the shift.

All you can do is be patient and if your daughter needs emergency attention, get her to A&E. I hope she feels better soon.

I think there is a fundamental issue at the moment. You ring 111 to get advice etc and they say you need to be seen at OOH but there are no appointments so they say go to A&E which is over run already. You turn up at a&e and tell them 111 sent you and you get told off.
Clearly something is going wrong!

Two things ive experienced that it could be...

1. When dd1 was a baby she got bronchoolitus and ended up 5 days in hospital on oxygen. But it started with a ten minute dr appointment. We were in there for an hour with her on a nebuliser (I think?) until she was stable enough for me to drive her to hospital.

1. My ex is a dentist. He would often have 7 appointments all booked in for 9am. They would have come via 111 when he was already fully booked for the day so they'd just put them all in at 9am.

I feel for you and its so worrying. We really struggled to get an ooh appt the other week and in the end I had to take DC to A&E. Not ideal but he really really needed the antibiotics. He couldn't have waited until the Monday. Tonsillitis is really nasty at times. This was the worst any of my DC have ever been.

Stick with it. Hopefully you will be seen soon.

@SunShinesBrightly

Please could someone explain how it works because I feel IABU and quite prepared to be told so. Been waiting at the out of hours drop in clinic with very poorly DD who has tonsillitis. It started on Friday night and I’ve booked a telephone appointment at our GP for Monday via the on-line request form.

Anyway, we have been here for 2 hours and only one of the 5 people waiting has been seen. That was an hour ago. 4 people are still waiting and nobody has joined the queue for over an hour.

What are the doctors doing? Are they responding to 111 telephone calls in between seeing the patients waiting?

One of the nurses has just gone on a break. Nobody is coming or going or being seen.

I asked and the receptionist just said they were very busy 😕

Hoping someone who knows will come and tell me what goes on behind the scenes.

Let me start by saying, I'm sorry your DD is poorly and I hope she receives treatment and feels better soon.

If you're at an ooh attached to A&E then the Dr is also seeing patients in A&E.

If you're at an ooh attached to a 111 call centre then the Dr will be responding to calls tagged as urgent & priority in between seeing patients in ooh.

It is highly likely there is only one Dr working today (Sunday).

I was at work yesterday and I work on a trauma ward. There was one junior Dr covering two wards. I don't understand why the NHS England bangs on about providing care 24*7. The reality is all parts of the NHS only offer a relatively fully functional service between the hours of 8am til 6pm Monday to Friday.

Outside of these hours (unless you are visibly critically ill), people have to be prepared to sit and wait for a very very long time.

I hope I've helped to answer your question.

Thanks so much everyone!
We’re home now!
It was a walk in health centre (not attached to A&E - out of hours Services provided by a private company for the NHS).
You can just turn up and wait in the queue or, if you can get through, 111 will refer you.

We tried ringing 111 this morning for advice but after 2 hrs on hold we just got in the car and went over there.

If they are manning the 111 phones alongside seeing face to face appointments they are doing two jobs at once.
No wonder nobody moved up the ‘physical’ queue.

We got seen eventually by a nurse practitioner and didn’t complain or mention our slow wait to anyone.

More worryingly though, the nurse practitioner we had the misfortune of seeing was the rudest woman I have ever met.
She was disinterested, didn’t listen, made incorrect assumptions about why we were there, didn’t bother to look at DD’s throat until she had finished complaining about us being there. Was snappy and unpleasant. Totally unwarranted!

DD and I could barely get a word in edgeways. It was a pretty unbelievable experience all round.

The system (and some of the staff it seems) are broken. Having said that, we didn’t drag ourselves there to put up with her abuse.

But did you get medication, assuming antibiotics if infected ?

So rather than be grateful that your child received medical attention on a Sunday and you had a short wait, you have decided to still moan. OK then.

Did you get a swab done and some treatment?
Are you giving DD ice lollies and paracetamol?
Any follow up arranged?

If she is old enough to gargle, hot salt water is good, as is oraldene.

I don't actually think that situation is too bad, shame the nurse was rude though. I took my dd to A&E last week we waited 5 hours but were seen and treated. This is the NHS now, agree with a previous poster the NHS ceases to function from 6pm on a Friday until 9am on an Monday, god forbid you have a BH on the Monday too.

I work as an NHS nurse and it's broken, the staff are broken, the service we now have is as good as it gets. Also you mention a nurse having a break, is that not allowed? Or should they see everyone and then have a break? I hope your dd got the treatment she needed.

I waited 7 hours once with a child with an obvious broken wrist you could diagnose from the other side of the room. It is just sheer work load and no staff.
By the time we got seen the Xray department was closed, so we waited another 3 hours for the only radiographer in the building. We arrived at 2pm and left at 2am.

@SunShinesBrightly complain about her , miserable cow , nothing will ever change if people put up with shit service and don’t complain . Hope your daughter feels better soon .

But did you get the issue sorted or not? I'd 100% complain. These people choose to do this job then become blasé, vacant, over relaxed and don't learn til they miss something life threatening. I've seen it over and over again. I just hope you get the antibiotics you needed. Just a heads up I recently used push doctor and paid £40 to see a GP privately it was well worth it if you want to avoid all this nonsense in the future. I think it's even worse when you get this kind of attitude with a child- everyone knows that children don't offer appear as ill as they really are and go downhill really rapidly if not treated properly.

So it was between 3-4 hours wait for tonsilitis. It is what I would expect. I am sorry the nurse was rude. Since you don't complain about it I assume your child got the treatment they needed.

@Noavocado

So rather than be grateful that your child received medical attention on a Sunday and you had a short wait, you have decided to still moan. OK then.

There's no excuse for rude treatment, ever. I say that as someone who has worked in the NHS for over 30 years. OP, I would send in a complaint - the nurse practitioner's approach needs to change and she shouldn't have behaved in that way.

The complaints for our department (fortunately very few) were followed through by a manager every time, and actions/resolutions had to be reported back to the complaints team for every single one of them. It's an important way of improving service.

I hope your DD improves quickly.

[quote Floralnomad]@SunShinesBrightly complain about her , miserable cow , nothing will ever change if people put up with shit service and don’t complain . Hope your daughter feels better soon .[/quote]
So you are now calling nurses miserable cows.
How times have changed... 18months ago people were clapping.
People seem to have very short memories. But yes go on complain about her...and we wonder why NHS staff are breaking.

I think it depends where you are. I fell over yesterday and my thumb was at an odd angle. Phoned 111 for their advice. The message said they were really busy but it could be done on line so I went through the on line system. Was told I would get a call within 30 minutes, which was actually 4 hours later. The nurse I spoke to was really apologetic and said the minor injuries unit was now closed but to go straight to A & E. When I got there they were expecting me, there was only 2 other people waiting. I was sent straight to X ray and was at the hospital for 2 and a half hours. I had broken my thumb in 2 places.

@Bonkerz

I think there is a fundamental issue at the moment. You ring 111 to get advice etc and they say you need to be seen at OOH but there are no appointments so they say go to A&E which is over run already. You turn up at a&e and tell them 111 sent you and you get told off. Clearly something is going wrong!

I was referred to A&E by 111 a few weeks ago, in an area where they don't have OOH.

When I got there, they were expecting me, I only had to wait 15 minutes to be seen and the whole process was very efficient.

I had blood tests and an x-ray done and was out again in just over an hour.

If A&E can be that efficient, maybe they should do away with dedicated OOH and use the resources for A&E.

@Noavocado , I never clapped , I am a retired nurse and no how hideous some nurses can be . The NHS very nearly killed me in 2017 and hasn’t been fit for purpose for a very long time , covid may not have helped the matter but nor does sitting back accepting shit service .