Child suffering - no doctor's appointments

[cofingalthetime]

So a friend's little boy aged 3 had a cold that hasn't gotten better - he has a chesty cough, and his eyes are very very sore with green gunk - obviously conjunctivitis. She just cannot get a doctor's appointment. Last night she rang 111 and they said they would send an ambulance, but it would take 6 hours so she took him to A&E but after 5 hours, without even seeing a triage nurse, she brought him home again. On the phone to the doc again this morning, and no appointments. I've just seen the little boy - he's totally listless lying on the sofa, his eyes glued together, breathing sounds awful and his cough is terrible. He just needs some antibiotics? She tried the pharmacist but he would only give her a cough medicine. My friend herself sounds terrible, with an awful cough and she looks terrible, I think she has a chest infection. This must be being duplicated across the whole country - I can imagine people ending up in hospital with pneumonia because they couldnt see a doctor. What should she do... I said maybe go to the surgery with the child so they can see how sick he is...?

Terese Coffey might have some spare antibiotics available? www.theresecoffey.co.uk/contact

Don't listen to this, please. The poster has no awareness of how quickly eye infections can become serious or how laboured the child's breathing is or if antibiotics are required. She's also going against the advice of the health professional who advised A and E.

It is such a crisis, and we are so beaten down into just accepting it. This country has some sort of Stockholm Syndrome where the NHS is concerned.

My only other suggestion would be that (if she has the resources) your friend pays for a private GP to assess her DC. Our local private hospital has a great GP service and you can usually get same day appointments. It’s £85 for a standard appointment plus the cost of any prescription (full cost, not the the NHS charge) or other tests.

I'm all for self care, but this has gone on for a while and he needs to be properly assessed and examined.

I'd say we have Stockholm Syndrome where the Tories are concerned.

Conjunctivitis is just when a cold spreads to your eyes.

Well, unless it's bacterial conjunctivitis in which case an antibiotic may be appropriate.

The conjunctivitis may also have got so severe or be a more severe strain needs actual treatment.

People posting on this thread are being unbelievably irresponsible. I can't believe MN allows this kind of thread to stand.

I went to urgent care last week wasted time, given nothing. Now quite I’ll with chest infection that should have been avoided, nasty as living alone. This seems to be happening everywhere. Surely sick children come first, seemed to do years ago

I can't believe MN allows this kind of thread to stand. I agree, it is worrying how much bullshit is posted about kids' health sometimes on here.

And she clearly doesn't know that health professionals hate parents using home pulse oximeters with a passion. They are not to be trusted! (Although more likely to scare unnecessarily which isn't so bad).

You have a right to be here star girl but please do pipe down.

I'm quite shocked that she can't get a GP appointment tbh.

I know it's bad in some places, but this doesn't sound safe at all. I've always been able to get a same day GP appointment for urgent things, and there's a walk in clinic with GPs open every evening. It's probably why our A&E isn't as busy as many.

Havnt read all this but why in earth did she leave a&e.
I'd go down to gps sit there and day I'm ot moving until seen. He's a child so should be a priority. My son was poorly with cold at 18 months old. Put it down to general virus and gave calpol etc. 2 days later he got worse and was listless. I took him to a&e. His temp spiked while waiting there to 42. Nurses said they were surprised he didn't convulse. He had acute tonsillitis. I still feel awful I left him for those 2 days knowing how painful it is.

If your friend can afford an internet gp she may at least get antibiotics if required. The GP will almost certainly want the child seen in person and may contact the child's NHS GP to request this. But you shouldn't have to do that.

If the child has legitimately been spiking fevers for 10+ days he needs to be seen today. If no GP input (sometimes I find it better to call up midday and say I'm quite worried about x) then he needs to be taken via 111/ED. 111 have already said they want him reviewed in ED so your friend should take him. It will be a long wait but take his pram so he can get comfy and sleep when needed. I find during the day better than overnight, stuff happens slower overnight because there are fewer specialties and things back up.

A child will be tired with a viral infection or a bacterial infection but they will be rousable and alert when awake. If that is not the case then they need to be in ED NOW. Buying home sats probes isn't a great idea for kids, look at his breathing, does it seem like he is working hard to take a breath, can you see his ribs when he is sucking in? Is he breathing very fast? Is his colouring good or any tinge of blue?

I'd be a lot less concerned about the conjunctivitis, it makes them look miserable and uncomfortable but it's not a worrying thing that needs to be seen in ED. No one is getting seriously unwell from conjunctivitis. 3yos inevitably wipe their snotty nose up in to their little eyes and they get gunky. Could be viral could be bacterial, I'd do a few days of cooled boiled salted water with cotton wool pads, dispose of pads after every wipe and wash hands between eyes. She could take them in to steamy bathroom to help break up his mucous and focus on drinking well, eating will catch up when he's better.

Fwiw my GP practice are excellent, I message the online triage and am phoned by an ANP within an hour. They have a pediatric ANP and GP on staff and every time I've phoned (admittedly rarely) they have had the kids in that day.

a baby with a heart condition who was turning blue was left sit for over 4 hours?so there was a parent in the waiting room shouting for help because their baby was turning blue and everyone just ignored them?

It's crazy. It's like people are normalizing developing country health care.

My baby was poorly for three weeks. After two I tried to get an appointment but I was fobbed off with it being "just a cold" and told I had to wait it out - she spoke to me in a really patronising tone as though I was an anxious first time mum, which I'm not. I have a 6 year old.

The next week he got much worse so I rang again and had to insist he was seen by a doctor because the triage nurse was trying to fob me off again.

He had a chest infection. He was given antibiotics. He's finally on the mend now!

Op I'm in the same situation as your friend, both me and my child are suffering with a bad cold, chesty cough, congested, my child has gunk in his eyes which is clearly conjunctivitis. I'm doing exactly as this poster has said plus I got some fucidic acid eye drops for my child by ringing 111 and asking to speak to an out of hours doc, who then prescribed them over the phone. I can't even get through to speak to a receptionist at my gp.
Or your friend can try a pharmacy to get eye drops.

How can a child be too sick for A&E? Im sorry but thats ridiculous - not sick enough, yes - too sick. No. No it's not nice but needs must. I had to wait in A&E over the weekend for hours with my 3 year old who couldn't stay awake for more than an hour, stripped down to her underwear because her temperature was out of control and it was uncomfortable and awful but I sat it out and waited because my child was desperately ill and needed to be seen. I must say that while I was in A&E it did feel as though every other child in the waiting room were at least alert and chatting if not laughing and running about - perhaps some of those didn't need to be there, but a listless child who's wheezing and getting worse? Yes that child should stay in A&E.

Doctors are not hiding. There are 1.2 million GP appointments PER DAY in England. This might not be enough to meet demand but it DOES NOT mean they are hiding.

You do not know, without a microbiology lab and incubator in you back room, that it needs antibiotics
MOST infections are viral- eyes, ears, chest, wherever ….
Antibiotics only work on bacterial infections . They do NOT work on viruses. And never will.

They weren’t invented to “prevent suffering”. That’s not how drug development works. They were a chance discovery by Fleming…they are moulds. It wasn’t until 1940s that they were liscensed as a medicine when Fleming’s original discovery, was revisited. They were found to be effective ( in clinical trials) at preventing death from acute bacterial infections like gangrene in the first instance- saved thousands of lives/ limbs WW2. Mass prescribing of antibiotics as a wonder drug didn’t start till after the war and into 1950s.

There is a global catastrophe looming; because antibiotics have been handed out as “precautions” for years. Most antibiotics are becoming useless due to resistant strains of bacteria that have developed through over use and over prescribing since 1960s . NHS GPs are now under orders (long overdue given WHO warnings since 1990s) not to prescribe unless they’re sure . For some life threatening bacterial infections we are now down to one antibiotic choice. Governments around the world are trying to get pharma companies to do research on new generations of antibiotics- but most major pharma companies pulled out of that years ago as there is no money to be made to even cover costs . There have been no new classes of antibiotics released onto the market since 1960s . I Know this- I worked in penicillin manufacturing, and then cephalosporins and Tertracyline classes as well as cyclosporine- one of last drug of choice for TB when all others are now failing. It is a global health crisis

whilst your particular reoccurring infections may be bacterial and you are being correctly prescribed , right now the OP DS hadn’t seen a doctor at all- you are in no position to armchair prescribe even if you’re were pharmacist 🤷🏼‍♀️

agree he needs to see a dr, but for a start she can get antibiotics eye drops over the counter. Not all chesty coughs need antibiotics.

I never thought the UK would ever get this bad.
A friend of mine told me a story of how her mum's brother died as a child because a nail embedded in his foot whilst playing turned to sepsis. This would have been in the 60s. I am guessing the NHS played a part but I don't know.

If 400 people wanted to buy a loaf of bread, and Tesco only had 200 to sell, would you say that the staff in Tesco were hiding? FFS, people are stupid sometimes.

We don’t even bother with the GP anymore, we just go to the walk in centre when it opens in the evening. Never takes more than an hour to be seen and get home!