To be really annoyed with GP in light of strep A concerns?

[PeppermintChoc]

My sons pre-school has had several instances of Scarlett fever. He came down with a rash, white things and temp, complained of a sore throat. I would usually just have thought it’s viral but after calling pre-school they said don’t forget about SF and encouraged me to see the GP. They’ve had some really poorly children and staff.

Rang GP and he didn’t want to see him. Had a phone appt. He actually said “don’t worry about Scarlett fever it’s really rare” I said he’d been in contact with it and that didn’t change his mind.

My son was fine, fortunately, but reading about all these really poorly children and can’t help but worry that if one of mine does come down with something it’s luck of the draw as to whether they’ll see them. Conversely on another occasion he had tonsillitis and the only reason the GP (diff GP) picked it up was because he examined him. GP was surprised he wasn’t more poorly as his tonsils were awful and covered in pus.

I’m terrified at the state of our NHS. I am always reluctant to call “just in case” but I wish we could - really we should be able to be seen just to put our minds at rest. I’d rather pay £50-100 and feel happier my children aren’t seriously unwell than wait until they get really poorly just to justify going.

We have a really shortage of Drs and GPs. And Brexit made it worse. So Drs have to prioritise and not spend time just reassuring worried parents of mildly ill children, and instead focus on those who need their care.
The government instead want to ration healthcare by money. So well off worried parents would get reassurance and really ill poor people get nothing.

This is a question that we’re going to have to answer given that UKHSA are currently advising HCPs that all children with suspected scarlet fever are given antibiotics.

They are giving out prophylactic antibiotics in some outbreaks which may help reduce spread in some areas. But it is going to be difficult for parents to get hold of the antibiotics if they don’t have access to healthcare. And children can’t return to school or a nursery setting until they have started the antibiotics.

This isn’t the fault of GPs and it isn’t the fault of parents. Unfortunately we seem to have run headlong into another crisis in a winter which the government was told was going to be difficult months ago and hasn’t planned for.

Even during Covid we saw a f2f GP on a Saturday for an ear infection. Same day.

I wouldn’t expect SF to be less urgent

Scarlet fever can cause long term serious health problems. Children absolutely do need to be seen by a GP and given the appropriate antibiotics. The antibiotics also help to control the spread of scarlet fever. The NHS website states that children with scarlet fever should be seen by a GP. It’s not the sort of thing that you should self treat at home. Some people on this thread need to take it more seriously, otherwise we’re going to have a lot more child deaths.

Of course scarlet fever should be seen by a GP. But not every sore throat is scarlet fever.

My DD has spent the weekend in A&E with scarlet fever, the state of the nhs currently is truly terrifying.

@antelopevalley OP’s child had a rash and had been in contact with other children who’d had scarlet fever. That should easily justify a GP visit.

A lot of people on here seem not to understand that scarlet fever requires antibiotics. If your child has a fever, a sandpaper rash and a strawberry tongue like in this photo they need to see a GP for antibiotics

@MarshaBradyo apparently it usually does, but we can't claim for anything scarlet fever-related for our youngest now that he's just had it.

We phoned our GP first of all but they had no appointments and we were very worried so we then called 111 who agreed we needed to be seen. They said they'd send a referral to the GP for us to be seen in the next hour, but when we called the GP back but they said they still couldn't fit us in and 111 shouldn't have sent the referral. So, we had to phone 111 back and they sent us to the hospital then.

I like how people are interpreting the symptoms in an effort to minimise them. He had classic Scarlett fever symptoms. In hindsight I think it likely was that and it was just a mild dose. I thought it was one of those things that wouldn’t resolve without antibiotics, I didn’t realise they were given to minimise complications aswell.

I'm sorry I have no faith in Dr's. Took my daughter and said she's breathing funny. Is it asthma? Dr shouted at me and said don't be so ridiculous. She's fine next day in out of hours with pneumonia. Useless

This kind of attitude "dont bother the nhs" untilIs really serious really baffles me ! Is a cultural
Thing i noticed since moving here. is really strange for me
Not to see the doctor if my child
Has a fever and just wait and see
Thankfully we have private insurance so i don't bother with the nhs gp
Anymore !

So sorry hope she feels better soon

I completely get where you're coming from OP and I'd personally feel the same. It's ok the people saying the doctor knows best/was right etc. But the 4 year old little girl currently in alderhey was sent home with an inhaler the day before after being seen and told she was fine to go home. Shes now fighting for her life.

Doctors can and do make mistakes, they are only human after all. Specially if they are only having telephone appointments, things can easily be overlooked etc.

Glad your little one is ok though. It honeslty has me so worried.

The NHS isn’t there to provide you reassurance

pay for a private GP appt next time

@ReallyTiredAndHungry the OPs GP should have seen her child because they had a rash and had been in contact with scarlet fever. It’s a notifiable disease for a reason. The complications are serious and can cause lifelong problems. Sick of people minimising it. I have seen it first hand and thank goodness I did pay for a second opinion when my own GP failed to diagnose it.

The OPs GP was correct in his assessment.

Seconded. The GPs I work for are really nervous about the idea of telephone appointments for young children and always prefer to get them in to see face to face. We have a couple of emergency (book after speaking to one of them) slots at the end of each session.

How do you know the OPs GP was correct in his assessment? It sounds like her DS had scarlet fever.
you can recover without antibiotics but they are recommended to prevent long term rare side effects.

@ReallyTiredAndHungry disagree. The OPs child could have had scarlet fever and was lucky to recover from it without becoming seriously ill. Some children do but some children don’t and many died before antibiotics were available. Antibiotics are also inportant to stop the spread. The OP was dismissed by her GP because it’s “really rare”. Whilst it hasn’t been as common as it once was there have been significant outbreaks over the past decade. Almost eight thousand cases in a year is not “really rare”. That was the figure for England in 2019/20.

I agree. I have to say I always hope to get a nurse practitioner appointment, not a GP one ever since my long time family doctor retired. I think it's because by not being a 'Doctor' (and everything it entails of maybe feeling or believing you have to have all the answers) they are much more interested in what you have to say (and listening to you, actually listening not acting as if they are) and if they aren't sure they will literally say they aren't sure, and if they are concerned they will get a second opinion.
But my previous doctor I would have trusted with anything. So I guess it's luck of the draw.

I do think though that it's important to always remember (all of us, doctors or not) that what YOU do matters, your actions and decisions have consequences. We can't just blame systemic failures, or being overstretched when things go wrong as a result of what we have done (or not done).

I also think that there is a very real need to be extremely cautious with illness and young children because things can turn very very quickly.

You’ve misread my post. I wasn’t seeking reassurance alone, I’m fairly confident my son had scarlet fever.

I said in a post that parents should be able to see a medical professional for reassurance, but I didn’t say that I do or was trying to access the GP for that reason.

Parents shouldn’t be able to waste finite resource on seeking reassurance. That’s simply ridiculous

You said you would be happy to have paid, so why didn’t you in this instance?

You said you would be happy to have paid, so why didn’t you in this instance?

Because she wasn’t seeking reassurance. She had a perfectly valid reason that needed a GP appointment so presumably she thought that her DS would get the treatment she should have had.

Can I ask you re-read my posts before directing your misplaced anger at me?

Nowhere have I said they should waste finite resources I have acknowledged that comes at a cost.

I didn’t use private healthcare in this instance because I didn’t think about it at the time. It’s pretty clear this post has been made on reflection.