Hospital having to wait twice

[username3058282]

DD has suspected Asthma (she's too young to be officially diagnosed). Last night she was coughing terribly all night and couldn't sleep. She has been hospitalised afew times and this was similar to how it started so I rang 111 at 5 this morning. By the time someone had called back it was 6. There were no out of hour GP appointments left but 111 wanted her seen within 2 hours so told us to go to A and E. (Just an explanation as why we were in A &E).
Anyway it took 3 hours to be seen which I wouldn't say was that bad after hearing some horror stories. During this time and with DD having her inhaler regularly she had improved. She was checked over and I was told just to keep up her inhalers frequently/come back if it gets worse etc. They didn't want to give her steroids unless it was definitely needed. As the doctor was saying all this I noticed her cough was coming back but the doctor didn't seem concerned. We went to walk out the doors of childrens A & E and she started coughing quite bad again and was almost sick. I observed her for a couple of minutes to see if calmed down it didn't so went back inside. The maximum time between saying goodbye to doctor to reentering was 5 minutes. I explained to the receptionist what had happened and that I had literally walked out the doors and turned around. She checked with someone and told me to be seen again I would have to discharged and rebooked back in. Basically queue again in what would be a lot longer queue than before. I hadn't even been discharged on the paperwork I don't think yet.
I'm probably going to get told AIBU and I probably am. But I was so angry/tired I almost burst into tears. It is me or is that just illogical? I didn't expect the doctor to come running back. But if she was already seeing to someone else maybe after them to reassess my DD.
I ended up just walking out and I am now waiting for an phone call off my GP instead. I now just wish I had waited for my GP in the morning.

YANBU

The nurse could have done a quick set of obs and asked the doctor to have a quick check. They could have added an addendum to the notes, they could have documented discharged in error to cancel the discharge.

Next time walk straight past the receptionist if its been a matter of minutes, present yourself to the nurse.

How old is DD. My DS was diagnosed at 8 months old by our GP. He was coughing and wheezing whilst crying whilst we were waiting to be seen. GP had him on a nebuliser and gave us steriods in tablet form from then on along with a spacer for reliever inhaler.

If

YANBU, it's totally unreasonable to have you wait again.

@Mindymomo DD is 2. I have always been told they don't officially diagnose until they are 5 or 6. DD has two inhalers with a spacer and once had to have a nebuliser and steroids. We (and doctors) are hoping she will grow out of it.

Thanks everyone I think I should have been more assertive. I just didn't want to cause a scene especially in hospital full of sick children. I'm one of those people who is either too soft or when I try and assert myself I come across aggressive/argumentative.

How is she now?

Presumably the doctor checked her vital signs eg pulse, temp, heart rate, oxygen sats etc and listened to her lungs?

So without any signs of infection and steroids being decided against, what else could they do?

Appreciate it’s stressful but there may have been a long queue of children who were more ill waiting to see the doctor, you can’t queue jump just because her cough got worse on the way out.

I felt she hadn't been assessed when the symptoms where fully showing. I wasn't queue jumping I had already queued and hadn't even left the building.

Anyway she was seen by the GP yesterday who thought she did need steroids. He said if she gets worse to go back to A &E.

She was blue lighted to the hospital last year and this was how it started. It's hard when it seems to improve and then suddenly get worse.

@username3058282 I think some people on the thread don't understand how asthma fluctuates, tbh. You haven't done anything wrong, I'm sorry she's unwell. Hope she feels better soon with the steroids.

Hope she’s better soon! I didn’t mean I thought you were queue jumping, just it may have looked that way to staff/other patients waiting.

YANBU
I would have felt exactly as you did.

Is she on a brown inhaler too to prevent symptoms? You are right there no official diagnosis done til later in life usually age 5 or 6 as you say. Before then it's always just "suspected" asthma and Inhalers used on s trial to see how the child goes. My daughter has been on brown and blue Inhalers since age 2 and has now started a trial where she comes off brown for a good few weeks and see how she goes, so far so good in her case.

Also YANBU

@RegardingMary

YANBU

The nurse could have done a quick set of obs and asked the doctor to have a quick check. They could have added an addendum to the notes, they could have documented discharged in error to cancel the discharge.

Next time walk straight past the receptionist if its been a matter of minutes, present yourself to the nurse.

In my local ED department by the time you're back near the receptionist you have already gone through the coded (locked) door so would have no choice but to speak to the receptionists.

If you were just inside the four hour target then they probably wanted to rebook you as a second attendance to avoid a “breach”. They shouldn’t have made you wait again though.