To have refused to take DD to A & E

[Polarbearstar]

‘Refused’ sounds more aggressive than it actually was, but DD has not really been quite right for a while now with a perforated ear drum, high temperatures, cold, streaming nose.

Doctor keeps saying to take to A and E and I am unclear what A and E can do that they can’t?

Follow the GP's advice. How can any of us know why he said it? Just do what you've been told to do by a health professional. Hope your DD is better soon.

The doctor looked at her, said what the condition was and diagnosed some antibiotics but said that in future to go to A and E with her, ie for routine childhood illnesses, not life threatening emergencies or things that clearly can’t be dealt with at the GP (ie broken bone.)

Your GP told you to use A&E as the first point of call for childhood illnesses? 🤔

Sure you say there was no misunderstandings but that seems like a very unlikely scenario for a GP to gove that advice.

You are being very unreasonable, you don’t take the advice of a health expert but ask for advice on Mumsnet !! Ear infections can be serious and spread to the brain !! Listen to your GP

The system is broken. Your GP doesn't sound like they are making much sense. I would either see a different GP or just continue to speak to the current one if the problem continues. Pretend the a and e conversation never happened. I would not go to a and e just to sit there surrounded by drunks for hours on end only to be sent home again.

@Polarbearstar You're getting a lot of unnecessary stick on this thread. I maybe wouldn't go to A&E but I would go to the local walk in centre to get checked out if you have any concerns. Hope things ease soon :)

Is the GP not saying if it gets worse/doesn't improve/reoccurs quickly to take to a&e? That's how I read it. A&e can do an urgent referral to the Ear Nose and Throat department who can do various things the GP can't, including microsuction. I had recurrent ear infections and was advised to go to a&e at one point as some of the symptoms indicated a rare complication.

So OP, you have now called the GP and got a swab to determine what type of infection she has so you can help her?

Or is it just fisty cuffs on this thread?

Wtf?

They’re saying if she keeps getting ill for to a&e and they can treat her as an emergency patient IN HOSPITAL

A GP practise is not a hospital.

could you not have picked up the phone to double check what she meant?

Could OP get thru to GP or even anyone who can talk to the GP -- because omg, that is the most surprising thing suggested on this thread.

I think if I were OP I'd be scared to turn up at A&E without a letter from GP with this advice.

This is possibly the most frustrating thread I have come across on here. OP is getting a lot of stick for something she hasn't actually done!
The GP did not say "Go to A&E now" and the OP attempted to clarify not once but twice what the GP was actually saying.
It sounds to me like the GP is doing his or her level best to continue not treating patients as are so many at the moment. It should be an absolute bloody scandal but for some reason it isn't. Of course there are GPs out there who are doing their very best in difficult circumstances but there's also a hell of a lot who aren't.
I had cause to visit my GPs' surgery this afternoon, I was picking up a sicknote for DD. As per usual the entire building was like the Marie Celeste. Two receptionists, 3 cars in the carpark, none in the doctors' carpark. Lights only on in reception, nobody in the waiting room and this was noon on a Monday! Where the hell are they? What are they doing? Presumably not treating small childrens' ear infections anyway!
If any of you have one of the good GPs who are there for their patients, be grateful. Many of us do not have that luxury and are frankly scared of what might happen if we get ill. We don't have a walk in centre and the nearest out of hours is 25 miles away, as is A&E. I am in Scotland, and not in the middle of nowhere!

If your gp tells you to take your 16 month old to a&e, then you take your baby to a&e. You shouldn't even considering ignoring that advice.

@AnxiousBear

Is the GP not saying if it gets worse/doesn't improve/reoccurs quickly to take to a&e? That's how I read it. A&e can do an urgent referral to the Ear Nose and Throat department who can do various things the GP can't, including microsuction. I had recurrent ear infections and was advised to go to a&e at one point as some of the symptoms indicated a rare complication.

Why can't the GP refer to that service though?

That's the problem, surely?

Why does the system encourage people to clog up A&E with non emergencies, whilst simultaneously chastising people for doing so?

To be clear here, I have posted on this thread but it doesn’t mean it was the sole thing I was doing for three solid hours.

At no point did the GP state she wished me to take DD to A and E this afternoon.

@MrsMingech if you read through the posts the “fisty cuffs” you refer to are from you and some other extremely combative posters. I said some time ago that I was in the process of going through a private referral.

A couple I know had a little girl with a perforated eardrum which turned into a severe infection. The infection got into her brain and caused irreparable damage and she now has the mind of a two year old at age 25. If gp says a and e u go to a and e

Can't believe you are neglecting a baby like this.
Purely because of the inconvenience of waiting?
Please take her .

@Polarbearstar

To be clear here, I have posted on this thread but it doesn’t mean it was the sole thing I was doing for three solid hours.

At no point did the GP state she wished me to take DD to A and E this afternoon.

@MrsMingech if you read through the posts the “fisty cuffs” you refer to are from you and some other extremely combative posters. I said some time ago that I was in the process of going through a private referral.

Surely if a gp tells you to take your baby to A &E then do mean asap, that's ots function?

@Polarbearstar

Well, a few reading skills are around that level!

Well, aren't you just charming. Ignoring all medical advice, refusing to take your 'DD" to A&E and now insulting brain damaged children.

I must admit you weren’t very clear in your OP or maybe I have the reading comprehension of a 2 year old! You should have said you’d taken your DD to the GP last night and were given antibiotics but were told if it gets any worse take her to A&E?

That’s quite reasonable. She’s been seen by a GP, is getting worse, so don’t wait for a GP appointment. take her to A&E? The mastoiditis is probably what they’d be concerned about as that is a medical emergency.

Unfortunately sitting in A&E for hours is part and parcel of having DC, we all have to do it at some point.

Exactly @RedHelenB. However, in this instance the GP is suggesting it as a future course of action. This is what OP is questioning - should she be using A&E for symptoms of an ear infection in future, when there is actually a GP available that can see her? (Or out of hours GP service)

[quote GreenFingersWouldBeHandy]@Polarbearstar

Well, a few reading skills are around that level!

Well, aren't you just charming. Ignoring all medical advice, refusing to take your 'DD" to A&E and now insulting brain damaged children.[/quote]
I think it’s interesting that comment was clearly read, so it isn’t that people are missing me saying over and over that no one wants me to take DD to a and e here and now.

I’ve said this dozens of times now and it does get tiresome when insults and really, really, utterly awful, unspeakable things are said about you as a person and parent, yet when you retaliate, there’s all this self righteousness.

Having said that I agree DD is better without me but I don’t think there’s a better alternative.

This thread is mind boggling.

OP: GP told me to take my daughter to A&E if she is ill again.

50% of posters: OMG FOR SHAME TAKE HER TO A&E NOW YOU NEGLECTFUL LAZY MOTHER!

Other 50% of posters: you misunderstood the GP/are lying about what the GP said.

I’m with you OP. No bloody way would I take a kid to A&E for something a GP should see you about. A potential future ear infection.

@Emelene

It’s pretty dodgy ground from a safeguarding perspective not taking your child to hospital when you have been advised to do so by a medical practitioner… is there more to this story?

Agree. Huge safeguarding flag.

@Newmumatlast no it isn’t, RTFT. OP has not been told to take her child to A&E today