That if urgent care prescribe antibiotics and chemists are closed that they should provide them

[Diversion]

Husband stabbed his hand (just a small wound) with a Stanley knife at work on Tuesday, he said he cleaned it. By the time he got home from work last night the top of his hand and his fingers were red, hot, swollen and obviously infected. He went to urgent care who prescribed antiboitics, but by the time he got to the late night chemist it was closed as was the pharmacy at Tesco. I phoned urgent care who told us all the chemists on their lists were closed and to wait until this morning. I asked if this was safe, they just said it it got worse or he started to feel unwell to come back. By this morning when our local chemist was open his whole hand was swollen as was part of his arm. I am keeping a close eye on him as his hand is a mess and he had a slight temperature earlier. Surely urgent care know that chemists are closed and should provide antibiotics in cases like these.

You’re obviously correct OP. A&E give out antibiotics, I’m shocked that an urgent care centre wouldn’t for an obvious case where treatment ASAP would be best.

My nearest 24-hour pharmacy according to the NHS website is in Leeds - 204 miles away from where I live.

I don’t think that can be accurate, though - surely there must be at least one in London.

Totally agree..there is no such thing as a 24 hour pharmacy where we are..

If urgent care hasn't ready done so, draw a line where the redness has developed so you can monitor if it progresses, leave at least 4 to 5 hours between antibiotic doses and continue through the night. If any deterioration of hand/arm or raised temperature of over 38, call 111 or go to hospital emergency department.

I'm horrified. I haven't needed a late night pharmacy since DC were tiny but I assumed they still existed.

I'm in the west country, just south of Bristol and would have thought a city that size would have one. But our nearest pharmacy open till midnight is in Coventry. Over 80 miles away.

The 14 nearest pharmacies open at this time of night (23:30pm) are in:

Coventry, CV6
Luton, LU4
3 different pharmacies in London W2
London SW16
London N4
Ilford, IG
Nottingham NG7
Peterborough PE3
Manchester M1
Bradford BD7
Scunthorpe DN16
Leeds L8

That must mean that the vast majority of the population do not have a late night pharmacy within an hour's drive. That's shocking.

Our hospital issues prescriptions for out of hours and A&E.

They should yeah, if there is no 24 hour chemist, I would raise this with your primary care service.

Hopefully you’ll never deal with it again, but I would go to A&E if it happens again.

Either Manchester or Bradford

https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/pharmacy/find-a-pharmacy/

Same here. It used to be that there was one in my city

Our urgent care/OOH GPs each have a box of meds (common antibiotics/pain killers) in their consulting room that they can give out to patients once the pharmacy is close. Anything beyond the common antibiotics and pain killers has to wait until morning though.

I’ve literally just done it past midnight and am getting the message “there are no pharmacies currently open”.

Same here.

Draw a marker line @Diversion around the perimeter of the red or swollen area. Take a picture too. Note the time. Then you can see if the redness or swelling is spreading. And how quickly. Take regular pictures

Agree.

Most people who show up to urgent care need antibiotics. If their diagnosis requires something else, they're sent to A&E, or bandaged up and sent home,

Though I think the OP should have looked up 24 hour pharmacies within a 30 mile radius (,or more).

If you consider that 24hour opening/late night opening never used to be ‘a thing’ and has only been around for 20 or so years, it’s probably not too much of an issue to have to wait a few more hours (in the past people had no choice).

However - I understand the worry and frustration that now it is a choice, or a possibility at least, there should be a more consistent and common sense approach. They could carry enough stock of common meds to give people a couple to tide them over.

I hope your DH feels better soon and his hand recovers well - I’m sure that’s an added worry re work and stuff.

I think that's really poor, his hand has got worse, all medical professionals are aware of the sepsis pathway and need for quick antibiotics, he needed a tetanus shot and ab. I'd go back as they suggested, either to urgent care or a&e now, poor guy, hope he feels better soon.

@SociableAtWork that's not the case though

20 or so years ago, you would've had a GP on duty all night and an all night pharmacy would be open - certainly in my part of England. Or the GP would carry some basic medication.

They would even ring ahead and organise a bed in hospital. Night services have got worse not better. Starting with the fact that Gordon Brown got GPs out of having to do any nightshifts.

If I go back further to when I was a teenager - I was ill a lot as a child - it's truly mind blowing what it used to be available. And it's not about money.

@Diversion hope your DH is okay.