I had my first experience of going to an out of hours GP centre last night and was very impressed.
I started with symptoms of a UTI early Saturday evening ( frequent need to pee, stinging when peeing a very small amount) and was unsure what to do. I know pharmacists can now prescribe antibiotics so thought I could cope overnight and drink lots of water to try to wash the infection out and possibly find a pharmacy open on a Sunday. However, I’m not driving at the moment and using 2 crutches following knee replacement surgery less than 4 weeks ago and live alone so began to panic after I noticed blood in the urine!
So I decided to try 111 online and after answering lots of questions I was directed to wait for a nurse to phone me. I got the phone call after 40 minutes and was referred to an out of hours GP, the nurse arranged it and the GP centre called me almost straight away to confirm the appointment.
The centre was on an industrial estate about 2 miles from me so I called a taxi and within 2 hours of first contacting 111 online, I was sat in their reception room. I took a sample of urine with me which the doctor tested, it had very high markers for a UTI so he prescribed three days of antibiotics and went to get them from their stores straight away. The receptionist then called a taxi for me and I was back home by 1.15am.
The only problem I had was that it was very cold here, no snow but my drive and pavement were very icy and I was terrified of slipping on my crutches and damaging my new knee! It was only the second time I had left the house for almost four weeks since my discharge from hospital.
So, for me, the NHS came up trumps on what was probably a very busy Saturday night and I am really grateful especially as the symptoms have now eased after 2 antibiotic tablets and I am going to have a very quiet day catching up on my lost sleep.