5hr Wait to see a Dr with sick child - how are we at this point

[IAmADancer]

Just that really. Called 111 as my DD is poorly, very high temp, vomiting, lethargic, can’t put chin to her neck as it hurts. Was told she had to attend A&E.

She is currently sat on a plastic chair, looking horrendously pale and feeling so unwell. Seen the nurse and been told it’s a 5 hr wait for a dr.

Why do we accept this as the norm, it’s awful. I feel so frustrated that this is the best we can expect and that a small child who is obviously poorly is left to wait this long

Yes its shit - but as always, you dont know why they are there

I hope your daughter is diagnosed quickly and feels better soon.

Our NHS is amazing. Even now.

Sometimes it gets things wrong. It always did.

All of things can be true.

Once you have time, OP, you MUST write to your MP about this. Easy to do online via email. If we don't bring things like this to the attention of our elected representatives, and constantly lobby and raise our voices for better public services, nothing will ever change... of course, with the NHS being sold off piecemeal to private equity by successive governments, it's not going to very much longer until there'll be nothing left of it and we'll all have to pay privately for healthcare. BUT, whilst anything of it remains, we HAVE to campaign and engage as much as possible in however small a way we can.

This is horrendous. I hope your DD is ok.
At the end of all this I would be putting in a massive complaint. They need to staff their hospitals, it's obviously completely unsafe level of staffing. Then I'd write to your MP. The NHS just gets worse and worse, so underfunded it's ridiculous.

At this time of year literally thousands of kids have respiratory virus, vomiting bug, temperature. They will ways see a child to be sure it’s ok but you are one of many. If DC had been in a car crash you would be straight in.

We are still here. She’s had bloods and other tests. She has an infection/inflammation but they don’t know why or what’s causing it.

They have started her on IV antibiotics and she’ll have more tomorrow. They are running more tests but they take 24hrs to come back

My mother - 83 - fell and shattered her pelvis very badly, she couldn't walk. She spent seven hours in the ambulance outside the hospital before she even got into A&E. It's horrendous. Hope the antibiotics help your daughter soon.

What a nightmare for you and your DD OP. I hope she feels better soon.

I was dismissed as an anxious mother by GP's when my DD was ill and only sent to hospital with her to shut me up. After sicking up blood all down the hospital DR they realised she was actually ill and was in surgery within hours.

A parents instict should always be trusted.

Oh yes this! Sorry this has happened to you..there are far too many stories in the media where parents just aren't able to get the help their children need...you need to be soo persistent. I am the most relaxed not fussy parent and your daughters original symptoms would really have worried me. Hope she makes a speedy recovery.

Hope she feels better soon.

I spent 24 hours in a chair In A&e with pneumonia over 3 years ago. 80+ year old in chair next to me with urine infection. I really felt for her and the staff actually who were just trying to do their best.

Important to acknowledge that the demands on the NHS are steadily growing. Supply does not meet demand.
OP, I'm sorry that you and your daughter are having to wait. I hope she will be OK

Honestly it beggars belief and I’m quite sick of all the excuses for the poor state of (some parts of) the NHS. I hope your daughter is OK and thank goodness you took her to your GP who realised the seriousness of the situation. Fingers crossed for you both.

It’s good your daughter is finally being looked after correctly. We nearly lost our daughter when she was 9. I knew she was very ill, something was very wrong, but wasn’t listened to. They did act extremely quickly however 🙄 when they scanned and realised her appendix had burst 🥺 They did emergency surgery within an hour. The appendix had burst, was infected and had an abscess. The surgeon said she was a very lucky girl as she would have died within 3 hours if they hadn’t found it when they did 😥 I had been telling them for a full 7 days that she was VERY poorly 😡🤷🏻‍♀️ I didn’t class her as very lucky, I classed her as very let down by the system.

Wow.
some posters on this thread. NHS A&E services are terribly overstretched and dangerous. My own nephew was sent home as a 8 month old presenting with a high fever, and clearly unwell. My brother’s concerns dismissed and instead he was told it was ‘just a virus’.
12 hours later he was suffering seizures (was rushed straight back to A&E) and has been left visually impaired, with severe epilepsy, global development delays and brain damage.
He had bacterial meningitis and underwent life saving heart surgery.
If triage had been more effective it could have been so different. Warning signs are regularly missed and dismissed.
Something needs to change.

Op, my thoughts are prayers are with you and your daughter.

Hope your dd is feeling better soon OP. My son had IV antibiotics for tonsillitis (had a non blanching rash).

He also gets the rash with chest infections and the first time he had a blood test for the rash (high wbc and inflamotary markers)they did a chest X-ray which showed an infection. He didn’t have a cough so it was suprising. They had however said his throat was red like they did your DD.

Hopefully they will do one on your DD to rule it out.

Glad she’s being treated op. I’ve antibiotics work fast so hopefully they are sorting her out. The tests will reveal if it’s anything that requires prolonged treatment as opposed to short term antibiotics. I know it’s frustrating because you want your child seen asap but they do have to consider everyone’s needs.

I'm so glad she's been admitted, our DD had suspected meningitis and I can't fault the children's ward (our GP had her admitted direct). They were amazing and it turned out to be something called HSP. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/henoch-schonlein-purpura-hsp/ she was kept in for 48 hours for observation once they established it wasn't meningitis and she had lots of follow ups to check kidney function.

Having been in A & E with DH last week, I can fully understand why you came home with her OP. DH was having an AF episode, heart rate was 150bpm and he had to sit on the floor for 4 hours waiting for bloods to come back. The nurse told him to come home at 3am and ring our GP as he would likely see someone quicker. It's very frightening to witness first hand just how broken the system is.

I’m glad your daughter is receiving treatment OP, but how many hours were “lost” due to being unable to wait? I’m going out of my mind with worry about my daughter and there was no way I was going to leave, and even now I’m banging on every door. We’re being seen by the AMU on Thursday, but I’m inclined to go to our local children’s hospital and if that means sitting and waiting for another 14/15 hours then so be it. Sorry if it sounds harsh, but I’m a strong believer that if you’re not willing to wait, you don’t view it as urgent.

I do work for the NHS so I’m a sympathiser to the current state of the A&E. But parents going up there and then going home is clogging up the system unnecessarily - either stay or wait for a GP appointment.

Op, I’m so sorry your DD is going through this. At a time when you turn to those whose job it is to care, you’ve been let down. I hope she’s now getting the right treatment.

It’s not the first time I’ve heard similar situations. And my own recent experience was with triage who literally couldn’t comprehend what I was saying and I couldn’t understand her. It was impossible and I was incorrectly discharged and ended up in another hospital with a 10 hour wait (partly as my record on the hospital system was still showing a discharged from the last hospital)! We have to almost expect that we need to fight for treatment now. Luckily I had a wonderful nurse in the second hospital who was on the ball and got things moving.

How appalling. The absolute state of the NHS atm. Politicians should hang their heads in shame.

I feel so bad for you as a mother. And for your wee one. What an ordeal.

Hope she starts feeling better soon. 🌸

I'm sorry you've had this experience and I hope that now she's in and being treated things will turn around quickly.
You should raise an issue with PALS about the situation last night in A&E - it won't really change anything for you now, but it may help improve the approach going forward and therefore help others in a similar situation.
Obviously, keep your focus on DD right now, but something for the next few days.

This is not acceptable. Your poor dd. We have become conditioned to think we should be grateful for any NHS service no matter how rubbish. How much money has been wasted by the NHS and things like PFI. We expect the NHS to be run competently. Yes it needs more funding but it also needs to be better run. I feel sorry for the nurses and doctors who I am sure want to help everyone but can’t.

At last!
I'm so sorry you've had such a long wait but thank goodness your daughter is being treated at last. Sick children are usually given priority in A&E, I can only assume that staff were very busy elsewhere but that doesn't help you.

I'm sure she will be much improved by tomorrow, if the infection is bacterial the antibiotics usually work wonders quite quickly.

Bless her little heart, and you must be exhausted. I do feel fo you.

Keep us posted, we're all rooting for you.

This is normal with a child, I’ve been sent straight to paeds with my sick child from the GP practice.

Fucking hell why are some people so desperate to defend the NHS and the shit treatment sick people are subjected to in this country that they are so rude and dismissive of a sick child who as it turns out probably has meningitis which absolutely is a serious time sensitive problem!?

Honestly it's like some sort of Stockholm syndrome and it's pathetic.