To think 111 service is shocking!

[mkwar]

So on 2 occasions I have had to call 111 my ds is currently 6 weeks old, I called them once when he was three weeks old due to bad symptoms of what we now know was reflux and yesterday as he had been a little under the weather and started to slightly swell on the left side of this face, so naturally I called 111 due to his symptoms not being severe enough to call an ambulance, however if we felt we needed too we would have, we have ended up just taking him to a&e both times. So to get to the point I called them on both occasions and each time they have told me I need to speak to a clinician asap and one will call me straight back each time i have called them has been at night around 9pm and both times they haven't called me back until 3am like for a baby I just find that absolutely shocking I completely understand they are busy and have a lot to deal with, and if that was for myself or my Dh I wouldn't have cared about the long wait but I just believe you can't chance anything with a bubba or a child! I'm so annoyed by it to top it off I was left a shitty voicemail from them complaining I didn't pick up the phone it was 3am and I was already in the hospital with my ds my last thought was checking my phone I had placed it on silent to avoid waking anyone in the ward up and my ds.

Has anyone else has the same issues? X

That is awful @Exasperateddonut . It's the GP services and walk in centres that need more investment so that ambulances can be freed up for actual emergencies.

I rang 111, answered all their questions. Was told someone would call me back within 2 hours. 4 hours later no call, I rang back and asked if I could be put through to a clinician as I was still waiting for a callback. Explained I was in a hell of a lot of pain, I couldn't walk or stand properly.
Eight hours passed before someone from 111 bothered to call me back.
It took 111 10, (ten), hours to pass my details over to the oncall dept, who'd been told it wasn't serious.
When I finally saw a nurse at the hospital, 11 hours later, I was told I was in slow labour with my iud and sent straight up to gynaecology where the doctor told me next time to go straight to a&e.

So 111 left me to go through about 13 hours of slow labour, when I'd explained over and over that it was mental and physical torture.

111 left my partner for 4 days with a chest infection, with the promise, everytime we rang and asked how long until he could speak to a clinician, of a callback in a couple of hours. Told not to go to a&e as we'd be wasting their time.
No doctors were available at the time as it was right between Christmas and New Year.

What 111/out of hours GP doesn't allow for is that the person calling may be an unreliable narrator when it comes to their condition, and they can't see the patient on the phone. DH was already confused and miminising his symptoms when he spoke to 111 and the out of hours GP who told him he could go to A&E or try to get some sleep and see the GP in the morning. Lucky that there was no chance of sleep with the severe abdominal pain he was having and I persuaded him to get in the car instead of into bed, and got him into A&E. Where DH was still minimising while booking himself in at the desk, but I spoke up (he was also starting to get confused about address details etc). He was on an antibiotic drip within an hour, with sepsis.

He had a perforated bowel. Fortunately it healed itself and no surgery was required, byt he was in hospital on strong antibiotics for a week to clear up the infection.