I’m writing this because I am fed up with a certain doctors surgery, my great niece is 1 year old and been having problems breathing her mum is brilliant but the doctors don’t listen to her, she have been trying to get an appointment with her gp to no avail about having treatment for asthma due to a admission to hospital (1 year old baby) well nothing happened, fast forward a few weeks and her baby was very ill and the doctors wouldn’t see her couldn’t get past the receptionist just said she has a cold, so my niece dialed 111 who advised her to go to the hospital, took her to to a and e and the doctors said it good that she did as she was very poorly and was upset with her gp stating it was negultance that her gp wouldn’t see her (sorry about spelling). My niece has started complaining with advice from accident and emergency, got a case worker taking up her complaint.
WHY DONT THEY LISTEN TO PARENTS
now the back story, myself and my niece have had asthma since birth so we now the signs and are experience when something isn’t right but to be treated like a fool by nhs gps is both concerning and discraceful.
And they can’t just hide behind covid when a 1 year old baby is very poorly.
She now getting the right level off care but it no thanks from the doctors surgery!!!!
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Wanttobehapppy
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I am appalled, but sadly not surprised. This is horribly common. How dare a receptionist make a clinical decision?Please keep us informed about the complaints process, I am glad she has a caseworker to help.
To be fair I doubt whether receptionists do make clinical decisions. It's far more likely that s/he has been given the criteria by the managers and the doctors and has to follow their guidelines, so blame them.
Why gives them that level of responsibility? Who gives them the criteria? The out come could off been fatal I know from experience I can remember having a really bad asthma attack at 7 it never leaves you
The receptionist is on the frontline and has no power. In my area most of them are on the minimum wage or very close to it. It's like in any job they get instructions from their superiors and they have to follow them. They don't decide themselves whether or not to see someone.
I worked in a contact centre years ago as a call handler. I was given firm instructions on what to say and things we weren't allowed to say or do. If we had to call back a customer for example we were not allowed to say who was calling until we spoke to the customer on grounds of confidentiality. The number of people I had having a go at me and the worst one was a man who was very angry and kept shouting at me that he paid the phone bill and was entitled to know. I explained the privacy thing and he exploded saying it was all nonsense and this wasn't actually the case etc. In the end he slammed the phone down on me. Fortunately the customer (his daughter) did call back and I explained to her what had happened.
Then the number of customers who argued with me about the rules or the law saying how stupid it was and so on. They even asked me what I thought! Well I agreed with them but obviously couldn't say so otherwise I would have been disciplined or even lost my job. I even had to explain to some of them that I could only explain the process to them and not change it. What sort of power did they think I had for goodness sake! I didn't make the rules. I was on the front line and just got the flak.
No not really. It was at the DWP and the real problems that made the job so stressful came from them. Micromanaging, strict targets set so high very few could reach them. They said this was to encourage us, endless changes and retraining etc.
Yes the stories of ex employees of the local big hospital are legion. I must admit I was surprised by my place bearing in mind it's the civil service and I thought they would be good employers. They were terrible.
Ok the benefits were good and the wages very good for this area and you also got six months on full pay if you were off sick. But their policy on sick leave was awful. Ok if you had a very serious illness or a terminal one they were brilliant.
But if like me you didn't but had lung disease it was a nightmare. The policy was no more than 8 days a year off sick on a rolling period and if you went over that you got an official warning which would take 18 months or 2 years to work off. If you became sick again in that period, regardless whether you had a med cert, you risked being dismissed.
I was in a section where the manager was a known bully ie she had form. She bullied me relentlessly and also 2 more of her staff, mainly me. She micromanaged ruthlessly. I went off sick for a couple of months and then she went after a chap in my section. He went off sick too. They then moved her away from staff for a couple of years then put her back! I took out a grievance against her but it was dismissed without thought. I did try the union but it was no good.
They also on occasion broke their own rules ie only giving you half an hour paid for lunch and making you apply the day before if you wanted an hour. The union pointed out this was illegal so they changed it to the day itself instead.
I had been there over 5 years and got a severe chest infection so was off 2 days. I came back when I shouldn't have and because my throat was red raw asked if I could work off the phones. It was a flat no.
I was still within my official sick leave limit when a couple of weeks later the chest infection came back even worse and I went 1 day - yes 1 day over and they dismissed me. I knew they would as they hated anyone who was sick with a passion and sacked loads of staff. Staff would go into work ill all the time with bad colds, asthma attacks, and even flu coz they couldn't risk losing their jobs.
I had sick notes but it didn't matter. They were careful not to say they dismissed me for illness but on not fulfilling my contract to be at work. B******!
The health service were horrible to lots of people who were genuinely ill as well as they sacked a few people like a girl who they had it out for who had been off sick with stress for a year and they sacked a lady for having been off sick for 2 years and they had threatened lots of staff who were genuinely ill with the sack and myself included when I went sick with blood clots in the lungs.
I left that place off my own accord and feel I made the right decision to finish although it was a hard choice at the time.
Last week I had written to management there to thank them for having bullied me and not letting me do the training I had asked for letting them know how by accident they have done me a favour in doing those things as it got me out of a place that wasn't meant for me and then went on to say how well I have done since I left there and how I forgive them for that kind of behaviour.
Just to explain even though I have forgiven them it doesn't mean that I think there was any excuse for that kind of behaviour though and forgiveness is a gift to myself not to them!
Exactly. I had the choice obviously to resign instead of waiting to be sacked but I wasn't going to make it easy for them. The problem was because I was dismissed I couldn't find another job. I applied to work on the bank admin staff at my hospital and passed everything until they found out about my dismissal then they refused me.
I decided it was best to leave on my own terms and then I had control over my departure rather than wait to be treated badly and sacked like they did to other colleagues.
Well being over 50 at the time and living in an area with very few jobs and even fewer I could physically do, it took me long enough to get that one. I decided that no one and nothing was going to make me leave on my own accord.
I worked there over 5 years and hated every single day but had to get solvent again so had no choice.
I am so sorry to hear that your niece is ill and I hope she recovers soon. Doctors rarely listen to patients and especially not to mothers who they claim are just 'over anxious' and 'panicking' because they still have baby hormones. I don't know if they listen to fathers more but maybe not.
I wonder how many poor babies and children have suffered greatly or even died because of medical negligence, and it's not good enough. I hope the parents take it further and someone gets bollacked but I'm not holding my breath.
That’s a dreadful way to treat anybody, let alone a 1 year old who is suffering. I’d make a complaint to the practice manager as this sort of treatment is totally unacceptable. What does it take to actually see or even speak to a GP these days? Unbelievable!
I’m glad your great niece is getting the care she needs now. Bless her. Xxx
I'm glad she is getting what she needs now , it's very hard to see a Gp at this present time , but young babies and children should surely take precedence, it is heart breaking . X
Its absolutely outrageous. My daughter had a very similar experience with her first born D. I have asthma, my son has asthma, the child's father has asthma for heavens sake. The writing is on the wall. GPs refused to diagnose asthma although they did prescibe a ventolin inhaler with a tiny mask attached. Fast forward, they moved outside of London when child was 2.5, new GP practice also refused to dx asthma insisting "its not practice to diagnose children under 6 with asthma ". On yet another emergency appointment one day they saw a Belgian Dr who immediately diagnosed it saying "I cannot understand these British doctors refusing to diagnose asthma when its quite obvious and then small children are put on antibiotics when they could have been treated properly from the start and not needed them!" D was prescribed preventer immediately and has hardly looked back. They continue to all see that Belgian GP who they trust implicitly. D had also been blue lighted to A&E on 3 occasions.
One thing I'll add, When D was about 10 months she was prescribed Azithromycin syrup. My daughter checked for what I thought & I let her know it was a good ab. Next day she called me for advice, she'd checked several times that she was giving the prescribed dose but worried because she'd only been given one bottle & 8t was going down fast. I rushed over to discover the the instructions were to administer 250mgs! An adult or large child's dosage!! We now all of us, especially in these stressful times check all dosages and instructions. I bought infant probiotic for D for a couple of years for her poor little digestive system.
That's awful peege poor little mite. You ought to go over to the asthma site and hear some of the horror stories there. There was one very experienced asthma sufferer who knew her own body and her asthma very well. She went to A and E knowing she was very poorly but because her symptoms didn't fit their very narrow criteria she was told she was fine and they were on the verge of sending her home.
She said she just caught a glimpse of the doctors ashen white face just before she crashed completely! I hope the prat learned something there. Crazy.
I do feel sorry for your little one, but also very happy to hear that she is doing much better. It's awful that the Doctors didn't want to see her in this is outrageous to hear, but unfortunately it happen a lot I believe.
You can either complain to the NHS service provider directly (such as a GP, dentist surgery or hospital) or to the commissioner of the services, which is the body that pays for the NHS services.
Forty years ago, my middle daughter continual cough, eczema from a few months old , blood spatters on bedding ……..to be told there was nothing wrong with the child it’s you , an over anxious mother. Daughter was 8 before asthma diagnosis, now still asthmatic with low peak flow, poor lungs suffered all those years .
Please do follow up with an official complaint. Someone else's youngster could suffer serious consequences of this gp. He needs striking off as unfit to practice
I was gobsmacked to read how badly your great niece was treated. Things really have gone to the dogs since my own daughter was a baby. I'm glad your niece has the energy to take this further, but it would be completely understandable if she didn't. Stress is exhausting. Personally I feel receptionists are not always Simon Pure. I found that a receptionist at my previous surgery had told me porkies about a certain medication; I also felt that they did their best to stop you seeing a GP at all. If you were lucky they might fit you in with one of the practice nurses, some of whom were brilliant, others not so. Very sad that the NHS has been allowed to get into this state. Thank goodness your baby is now receiving proper treatment.
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