111 - useless!

[Jessie21]

More of a rant than anything

My dad has done his back in. It's muscular. He's been to a chiropractor and has been told, it's muscular. He agitated it over the weekend.

111 online says he must call 999 immediately because it could be a ruptured aortic aneurysm. It's not! He's done his back in and needs some muscle relaxants but we can't get an out of hours GP appointment because of this one thing.

What's the point in having a system when there's no way they can think critically about a situation

Online just follows an algorithm, can you ring 111 instead or go to pharmacy or hospital if he is in a lot of pain.

Where are you? Can he visit your nearest emergency care centre?

The algorithm online is the same as the phone - I've been through both processes myself and they have the same outcome

He's in bed watching films, if it's no better tomorrow I'll be taking him but we also feel like emergency care is OTT for him doing his back in!

111 can be a bit overly dramatic in my experience. I’ve called them for advice for my 11 month old twice in the last few months for health issues that I knew weren’t an emergency from my own common sense. Both times I was told to call 999 immediately. You can’t really ignore their advice when it’s a child either, because they could report you to social services for ignoring medical advice. So both times I did call 999, and both times when we got to hospital I was told he didn’t really need to be there and it wasn’t an emergency, which I already knew. Very stressful for everyone involved. I can only assume they do it because they don’t want to get in trouble if it does turn out to be something serious, which I can understand but it’s still frustrating.

In some cases I understand it - my dad once had sudden onset abdominal pain and an aneurism, totally makes sense to call 999 then.

Muscular pain that he's had before? He doesn't need 999 he needs a bloody gp

So online you just change the answer causing this response so the algorithm doesn't ping him to 999.

Easy enough to do.

The chances of him getting muscle relaxant are slim to none though. I got 15/500 Co codamol when my back was in spasm and I was in ribbons. Certainly no diazepam.

Can you get to a pharmacy today and get him some Paramol? It's about the strongest over the counter medication there is. Take it with ibuprofen.

Did you enter his past aneurysm when you put in his details, maybe that triggered an alert. 111 doesn't diagnose, they only offer advice.

Yeah we won't lie.

He's had this before, been prescribed it before. But of course the NHS is shit so they don't actually help anyone now

@Jessie21 it's not lying, it's getting your father seen.

You can either phone 999 as advised or wait until Tuesday by the looks of it, or you could say the pain is 8 not 10, or whatever the question is that's causing the problem and get the help you both want. It's a binary computer system for both the online and phone assessments. It doesn't understand nuance.

With his history of having an aneurysm then any doctor would want to rule that out, no one is just going to just prescribe diazepam on a "diagnosis"from the chiropractor or family, the nhs do help people all the tine and god forbid it isn't just a pulled muscle then you'd be grateful for the advice you've been given,

If it was a burst aneurism presumably he wouldn't still be here, kicking up a fuss, a week and a half later!

Like I said it's just a rant that 111 is the only way to see OOH GP when it's clear that this is purely muscular but they'll call an ambulance

Poor attitude OP. 111’s view differs from yours based on the answers you have given, yet you’ve apparently diagnosed him and decided on the solution you want. Of course 111 and the NHS helps people, and can ‘think critically about a situation.’ A chiropractor is not a qualified medical professional for the record.

If you call 111, you can refuse the ambulance and then a clinician will call you back. The clinician can then decide whether an ooh appt is appropriate.