DS is 11 months old and, like half the country, has a bit of a cough. I find it physically impossible to swab him but the rest of the family have been consistently testing negative for Covid.
Last night at 3am he woke up crying wildly, with very loud wheezy breath sounds. I woke up DH, we decided against waking up the 4 year old and driving 40 mins to A&E, thought we'd try 111 instead.
It wasn't a long wait to speak to the operator, they said a medic would call back within an hour. The phone rang in an hour but it was an admin non-medic from the out of hours service, saying that he apologised for the slow call-back. I asked if I should go to A&E and he said he couldn't advise, isn't a medic, to hold on for the medical call.
I hovered over the baby for the next 4 hours, watching him sleep, listening to him wheeze. At 8am the same admin dude called back to say the minor injury walk-in service is open so we've been discharged from out of hours care and can walk-in to minor injury unit at our convenience.
I was meant to be called back within an hour. Instead 5 hours passed and I never did speak to a medic.
Baby has seen the GP today and diagnosed with croup. But still - isn't that appalling for out of hour care? We live far from an A&E here and 111, when it worked, provided a really useful service.
I realise it's the fault of government underfunding and appalling attacks on the NHS, but this is really not functioning at the moment. I'd like to complain but no idea to whom.