waiting on ambulance for 17 month old. Handhold please.

[whiskersonkittenss]

baby woke screaming and red hot, wouldn't settle or take a drink. Doesn't like the light being on. Called 111 and they went through the symptoms and have requested an ambulance attend but it could take another hour from now
Currently keeping him cool with the electric fan. I'm shitting myself so scared.

@DannyDin apparently! The two times in my life I've called 111 have caused the NHS to collapse.

I have three young children
I would say that in the last seven years that 75% of times I’ve requested and obtained an urgent GP appointment - which I am fortunately able to do and have a good practice - the GP has sent us off to paediatric a & e or the children’s ward for further observation etc after seeing us anyway.

In this instance you could argue that is more wasteful of nhs resources but obviously we went to secondary care as advised and every time we were told the right call had been made.

That is the reality for many parents I suspect

Christ MN can be a cesspit of judgmental twits at times.

You did the right thing OP.

Ignore the keyboard warriors

MN can can a cesspit of judgmental twits at times

I completely agree, some people on here are utterly vile.

You did everything right OP. Hope he's feeling better very soon.

OP you did exactly the right thing. You’re your child’s advocate and you need to do whatever you can to ensure they are well.

The nhs and its problems are not YOUR problem- that’s for them to sort out. And there are massive problems currently in accessing the right care and support.

@Cleverpolly3

I have three young children I would say that in the last seven years that 75% of times I’ve requested and obtained an urgent GP appointment - which I am fortunately able to do and have a good practice - the GP has sent us off to paediatric a & e or the children’s ward for further observation etc after seeing us anyway.

In this instance you could argue that is more wasteful of nhs resources but obviously we went to secondary care as advised and every time we were told the right call had been made.

That is the reality for many parents I suspect

I was going to say the same thing. At least one time that we didn’t get sent on, “it’s croup he’ll be fine” we ended up in A&E that evening due to him struggling to breath and then blue lips.

Hi all

We think that the OP did the very best thing here - any concerns should be dealt with by professionals. This is a handhold thread, so we're moving it over to general health. AIBU just isn't the place.

There really are huge issues with accessing care. I’ve found my local GP have always been fantastic at seeing my children the same day until the one bad experience last November, when my then 9 month old had a fever above 39. I did the online referral as soon as she got the fever as the automated message says not to phone for appointments. I guessed that due to her age they would get back to me as a matter of urgency. It got to past 6pm and I realised they weren’t going to get in touch that day. I had no choice by then as Dd had become very drowsy and unwell but to call 111. An ambulance came and she was admitted at about 8pm with what turned out to be slapped cheek. She became floppy and hard to rouse when the paramedics were here. I tried to do the right thing by going to the GP first.

I got a call 48 hours later from my GP for an over phone appointment. I like my GP and I get that she has been stretched to her limit through this pandemic, so I had to really bite back my anger when I explained she had ended up being hospitalised whilst I waited for an appointment. Sometimes, the system obviously doesn’t work. You’d think babies and small kids that deteriorate quickly would be prioritised but my surgery doesn’t seem to do that any more.

@whiskersonkittenss ignore the self appointed guardians of the NHS. I called 111 myself for my nearly 2 year old on Monday and they sent out an ambulance immediately, he has a severe case of croup which in itself isn’t that bad but coupled with his asthma he went downhill fast. He ended up in the short stay unit on oxygen and steroids, and every doctor/nurse etc that spoke to us reassured me I’d done the right thing. And that they always want to see children sooner rather than later, because children deteriorate quickly.

If you are still reading, never ever apologise for getting medical attention for your children. It is what the nhs is there for. Children are notorious for changing quickly, they know this so doctors and paramedics won't ever mind being called to be safe. When my son's temp was over 40, within 2 hours of having calpol and he couldn't catch his breath because of it I had 2 ambulances sent within 20 mins. Of course he cooled down and was fine. It was a virus but the paramedic admitted that even as a trained medical professional, she had done the same for her son.

@Cleverpolly3

I have three young children I would say that in the last seven years that 75% of times I’ve requested and obtained an urgent GP appointment - which I am fortunately able to do and have a good practice - the GP has sent us off to paediatric a & e or the children’s ward for further observation etc after seeing us anyway.

In this instance you could argue that is more wasteful of nhs resources but obviously we went to secondary care as advised and every time we were told the right call had been made.

That is the reality for many parents I suspect

We had the opposite experiene.

My 5 year old dd had a fever, woke up after a long nap in the late afternoon with the light bothering her and complaining of a stiff neck. Phoned 111 who immediately sent an ambulance. While I was still on the phone with them, an emergency paramedic was knocking at the door who assessed dd and then ambulance followed shortly after. Meanwhile, dd was perking up and feeling a little better. Talking with the crew, they told me they didn't think it looked like meningitis but she needed to be assessed by a dr. They called our local GP, got them to clear a back entrance for DD and got her down there. They told me that they would wait and if the GP did suspect meningitis, they would shoot her down to A&E but if not, we could go just go home which would be better for dd. GP agreed that dd could safely go home and off they went.

I thought the ambulance crew were pretty amazing to be honest and very sensible and no one made us feel bad for having called 111 or having 'wasted resources'. I think they'd much rather false alarms like these than having a child die of meningitis because a parent hesistated to call because of bitchy comments about 97 year olds waiting 3 hours for an ambulance.

Hi OP, my eldest (now a strapping teenager!) used to get repeated tonsillitis when he was little. It was the only time his temperature went sky high in a short space of time, but antibiotics soon sorted it out each time. He met the criteria for having them removed, (I think it was 6 episodes in 12 months but I might be wrong, it was a while ago) but in the end we decided against doing that and he grew out of it.

[quote whiskersonkittenss]@DannyDin apparently! The two times in my life I've called 111 have caused the NHS to collapse.[/quote]
You did the right thing. Babies and small children can go downhill very quickly. They’d rather see a well baby than someone who waited too long so the baby was too sick.

@NancyDrawed

Hi OP, my eldest (now a strapping teenager!) used to get repeated tonsillitis when he was little. It was the only time his temperature went sky high in a short space of time, but antibiotics soon sorted it out each time. He met the criteria for having them removed, (I think it was 6 episodes in 12 months but I might be wrong, it was a while ago) but in the end we decided against doing that and he grew out of it.

My area its 12 times in 12 months my son had it 11 times in one year and missed the criteria by a fortnight thankfully they have settled down now

It might have been the same here (or perhaps they went for 6 bouts in 6 months?), Theunamedcat but it was a long time ago now. DS was referred to ENT and was seen at the local hospital but I was squeamish about the surgery (his dad had had his tonsils removed as a child and had complications from the operation) so decided to delay. We were given the option to wait but keep the referral open by the consultant and took it. If he hadn't bounced back so quickly each time we probably would have gone ahead.

From memory, ds has had only one bout of tonsilitis in his teens, so in hindsight it was probably okay that he didn't have his tonsils out - he genuinely appears to have grown out of it.