Tonight i have been at primary care shouting and crying.

[Beauregard]

Very
dd2(9 months) has been unwell for a few days with cough ,diahrreoh etc so took her to the gp yesterday ,who diagnosed a viral infection.Out of the blue tonight she started screaming and wouldn't calm down ,it was a 'pain'cry and she started making a grunty sort of noise so i called our primary care and there was no answer so "please leave message"so i tried again ,same thing so i called nhs direct and got another bloody answering machine and then it cut me off so i called the primary care and left a message saying we were just going to go up.Anyway we got there,no other patients waiting so is empty and i explained to the lady on reception (could have been nurse?)what the situation was and was told by her"im sorry you wont be seen without an appointment"so i remind her that i was unable to speak to anyone to get one and she just repeated herself.So dp had to call the primary care number from primary care to ask if we could be given an appointmentWTF.
By this time i was crying with frustration and shouting and she quite rightly said it wasn't her fault and please dont shout at me.I did appologise to her.
5 minutes later the gp called us through from the next room !!!!!
Fortunatley dd's breathing was deemed to be ok and we were told it was a temp and very sore throat making her grunt and were sent away with neurofen.
Im so angry ,god help us if there was something seriously wrong as the nearest A&E is about 20 miles away.
Maybe next time i should just call an ambulance rather than go through all that again.

how totally crap is that, the NHS is on a rapid downhill slide, trouble with calling an ambulance is they'll charge you for the privilge....

you had to call primary care, from primary care?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

i think your experience encapsualtes pretty much everything that is wrong with the NHS..

hope your DD2 is better soon.....((hugs))

[shock} at receptionist, what a total jobsworth!

Thanks lulumama
It makes me feel we are living in the in the 1800's or something,very worrying .

Surely you didn't have to phone the receptionist from right in front of her? Or is it some central number you have to go through? Although why she couldn't have done that is beyond me. Crazy.

Receptionist isnt the problem. The people that should have been on the end of the phone in the first place are. IMO.

That sucks though Pfnm...i would call an ambulance with grunting type noises when breathing.

Glad DD2 was deemed fit to come home though

It goes through to Worcester royal and they allocate the appointments but why the woman couldn't of just given us one i dont know?

God,that is insane.
Pelvic,I really sympahtise.

I work in the NHS , can't defend this, people are such jobsworths. Hope she's better soon pfnm.

she is sleeping now ,have the fan on in her room.
Think this is the same virus my mom has got and it lasts a while
Thanks everyone

Because the phone service is a little like "triage".

The other problem being that people would stop bothering to ring and just roll on up without an appointment. In which case, you may as well have folk going to A & E for this kind of thing as the did before.

Also, wouldnt you rather wait around at home until a slot came available, rather than sit in a stuffy waiting room/corridoor?

You were quite right to just go on up there in your circumstances though, despite the beaurocracy that then ensued.

I agree VVV but they need to prioritise.
Pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee dont let me catch it .

I understand about the triage role, but the receptionist's attitude when faced with a sick baby and frantic parents was not helpful.

No, probably not, but, people who work unsocial hours do so because they have to, and as such, really dont want to get sacked for not followign "protocol".

Undoubtedly the woman understands, I pretty much guarantee she has children of her own.

I forgot the word usually......