NHS Direct: is it often difficult to get through?

[BarefootDancer]

Following on from the rash thread - someone unable to get through to NHS Direct urgently on the phone:
Is there a problem with getting through to NHS Direct in general? How long do you generally have to try for? I'm interested in your experiences as this seems to occur regularly on MN.
(Fortunately I've not had cause to use them recently.)

Quite often it is too busy.
On one occasion when they were too busy and i couldn't get through to the Primary care centre,we just turned up at primary care with dd1 and even though noone was there waiting they still made us call them from their reception to get an appointment
Whilst i'm on a roll ......in my local paper today there was an article about a child aged 7 who had died following misdiognosis at the PCT,he was seen several times.
I have digressed sorry.

new year's eve i phoned as ds1 had a sore willy and couldn't wee. we waited 4 hrs or so... if i'd been more worried, i'd have just taken him to a and e i think.

barefoot dancer iused it a few years ago and they took hours to get back then. Don't they have a website for health questions and diagnosis? (Im sure they used to)

Yes there is a website, but you cant use it to diagnose specific tricky things, like rashes - I guess they can't do that on the phone either, but a phonecall is better than reading on the web - obviously seeing the professional is better than either, but given we are provided with NHS Direct as first place to call, it should be sufficiently staffed.

We have been lucky i think, most i have had to wait for a call back in 20 minutes, although on occasion they said a couple of hours, it never was. TRying to get mandoc to do an actual housecall though.....that's difficult. I hardly bother with them now. if we are really worried we just go straight to A & E, they have always been excellent with the kids.