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...?

@stargirl1701 hope you are not a doctor. Please stop spouting rubbish

Minimising at its finest. No not for conjunctivitis and a cough. For breathing difficulties and illness that hasn’t improved in 2 weeks.

My DD was hospitalised with bronchiolitis from the RSV virus. She was blue lighted in because her oxygen levels were below 90%. She was given antibiotics because there was believed to be a secondary bacterial infection but she needed medical treatment including oxygen, not just fluids and rest.

OP I hope your friend accesses medical attention soon.

It happens gradually. The baby would have been there already because they weren't a good colour. I'm not sure why you think shouting is the answer, it's not the Sistine chapel. Some events (such as a fit) would cause a parent to cry out but a slow decline when you've already pointed it out to an HCP? What do you think all those parents are doing it not watching in quiet desperation. Don't assume everyone shouts because you do.

Stop giving out dangerous advice on the internet.

Stargirl a glance at your previous threads shows that you have benefited from huge amounts of NHS support and medical care for yourself and your children throughout their lives over a period spanning a decade. It is really distasteful that you are minimizing a child struggling to breathe and curtly telling them to stay away from a doctor when it is quite clear that if was you or your child, you would probably be starting a thread about it and calling in advice from every HCP imaginable. You're not the only one who deserves medical care.

I'm not a doctor...thankfully.

But I only spout NHS advice.

Firstly, wipe his eyes out with warm salty water on cotton balls. There's no need for him to be suffering like that. Secondly, go to the doctors surgery and wait for an emergency appt. Someone will check him out. Make yourself a nuisance - you're a worried mum. You're allowed to be!

Someone needs to go back to the pharmacy and get chloramphenicol eye drops for the little one - he's over two so can have them and they should sort his eyes out. You do not need a prescription or to see a doctor first for antibiotic eye drops, unless they are under two years old.

Write to your MP

I was struggling to get an appointment when my little boy was about 18months, I literally scooped him up and took him to the doctor's and said help me. It was closer than the 45m drive to the hospital. They both need to be seen by the sounds of it, I think you may have to advocate for her DS and her if she's poorly too x

I'm genuinely horrified by the care some people are getting at their GP's... I would never refuse to see a sick child regardless of appointment availability...I guess we are 'lucky' maybe to still have enough flex to do it..no GP i have ever known would 'want' to turn sick people away the whole system is so so broken....

No you don't, your advice ignored breathing difficulties which you minimised based on no evidence.

Didn't you read the OPs post? After 5 hrs she was told at least another 4 and that was with no emergencies which let's face it at A&E is very unlikely, plus her child was very ill and miserable and probably she thought he couldnt stand another few hours there and needed his bed, fluids, rest, etc, not a cold draft waiting room with loads of ill people in it, especially as she is also very ill. Very easy of us comfy at home typing on a screen to judge, not sure what any of us would have done in that situation. Also hindsight is very useful. Of course she should of stayed but that's easy to say.

OP it's awful but it seems GP appts won't happen, so she needs to get to A&E sadly and just sit there for the many hours it might take for the poor little boy to be seen. It's a travesty really. Will you update us if you have the time or will, so we know he is ok? No worries if you don't want to, just want to know the poor little mite gets seen to ok on the end. He's a brave little thing.

I may have to hide this thread as I may need a GO after reading the stories, gaslighting and excuses people are making about and for the state of public health care in this country.

I had cause you visit my GP for a referral for one of my DC, and all it required was a phone call but this GP wrote on the notes I insisted on a face to face.

What the hell was that about?

GP* rather

I’m not blaming the parent; it’s 111 who are at fault, telling everyone they need an ambulance, just in case. It’s ridiculous. I read a comment on here once that an ambulance had been sent out to a child who had a vomiting bug. It apparently arrived within minutes and the paramedic came back later that night to check the child was OK. Course he was OK, he had a bug - he was seen and sent home. Meanwhile, old people are left for 15 hours on the floor.

Some common sense is needed, I think, and yes, from parents as well as 111.

They don't hand them out for small children.

I live in an area where I could easily see this happening and that's because the population here is really quite low and the healthcare provisions great on a per person basis. So in your example I think it was fine for the child to be sent in ambulance and for the paramedic to check if they had resources available to use. That's just great healthcare. Some other European countries are well known for that level of care. In other areas of course there's very little for too many people and the awful situation you rightly stated about old people waiting hours happens. But because it happens in one area doesn't mean great standards should just stop in another. Resource allocation is obviously a major culprit there but individual health care professionals often can't do much about that and just have to do the best they can within the limitations they have.

Primary care in our area is on its knees. I don't blame the frontline workers - I know several GPs and Practice Nurses and they are all working very hard, but the whole system is entirely overwhelmed.
My DS has asthma and it was really well controlled for ages but has been getting steadily worse since he had Covid earlier this year. When I phoned our surgery I was given two options - ring at 8am the next day to join the queue for an on the day appointment, and repeat daily until I got one if I wasn't successful on the first attempt or make an appointment with the Asthma Nurse Practitioner in a month. We went for the Nurse option. I don't want to take an on the day appointment from someone who really needs one, plus I can't keep taking DS out of school and to sit around on the off chance that we do get to the top of the queue and get a face to face appointment. We're 3 weeks through our month's wait now and fortunately he's not got bad enough to need an emergency appointment in that time, but he has had a fairly miserable few weeks. I absolutely understand that emergencies have to take priority but the problem is that not seeing people with long term conditions or less urgent problems in a timely manner is surely going to create emergencies that might be avoidable?
On the other hand, both DH and I have had multiple texts this week asking us to make an appointment to get our blood pressure checked, presumably because we are over some particular age. I get that that is important too, and that it's likely to be HCAs not GPs who are doing it, but it did strike me as ironic that I'm being asked to come in to have my BP checked at the. same time as I can't get my child who is actually unwell looked at. (I had my BP done at a hospital appointment fairly recently and it was fine by the way, so if only the IT systems talked to each other...)

Hi there. We've had a few reports from Mumsnetters concerned about this thread. Although we know how frustrating it can be trying to get medical attention at the moment, there's really no substitute for it – we'd never want to discourage anyone from seeing a doctor (or taking their kids to see one) if they think they may be unwell.

I work in a GP practice and there are plently of both face to face and telephone slots for urgent same day appointments. The routine ones are 5-6 weeks wait :( . No one would be turned away with a sick child.
If your GP practice is particularly rubbish. I would turn up and sit in waiting room until seen!!!!

I think a child who has a persistent cough, is clearly unwell and not getting better needs to be seen by a doctor. It is not a situation that requires an ambulance, and if 111 is sending out ambulances all over the country to children with coughs and vomiting bugs, it is no wonder that the NHS is not fit for purpose.

This child needs to be seen by a medical professional. @cofingalthetime Get back in touch with the mum and persist that she persists with the GP to get an emergency appointment. Does she drive? Can she go to the nearest walk - in centre or urgent care clinic rather than back to A&E?

Can she make a private GP appointment? If not, there is no option but to go back to A&E and wait. If she had waited for ambulance they would have been seen by now.