Out of Hours GP provision - how has y... - Hughes Syndrome A...
Trying to use my out of hours in an emergency was very daunting, I am an assertive person and fought hard for a home visit, but it is clear that the system it not working well, due to the interrogation you have to go through. I did explain that I was not prepared to pay £70 in taxi fairs! MaryF
I can sympathise with Mary on the travel. My out of hours is 50 mins drive. My local nhs 24 has no idea about my condition , and although my Gp tries hard to accommodate my condition, they are far overstretched with their resources, and so cannot give me as much time as I sometimes need. We have too many people moved into our area, and the system cannot cope. So simply, they do not have time to learn about the problems we face, in any depth.
Sorry, out of hours are you having a laugh. Regular hours are difficult enough in an emergency. There have been several times when it has just been impossible to contact my GPs surgery by phone. If its urgent you are often not able to get to the surgery under your own steam.
What provision is that? Combined with difficulties getting medications. Its hardly an advertisement.
I have had to use it twice in last few months, over a week-end period, I did get past the phone triage stage, but I think if if I was a less assertive person, I would have not got any visits, however each time, the staff when they did come were great and came up trumps, but I can't really see how it works for everybody especially in rural areas! MaryF
To be honest, I have never had an out of hours doctors visit. If there has been an ooh call it has usually resulted in hospital via the triage systems. But i do my utmost to try to get to normal hours as although the paramedics/a&e staff are usually pretty good, overnight care with regular on call people unfamiliar with my condition causes greater stress, and I feel that I am often better muddling through till normal hours.
Our local minor A&E has recently changed its opening hours... It is no longer open 24/7 but instead closes at 10pm. There is no other local out of hours without calling the on call Dr on 111. Thankfully I have not needed out of hours (touch wood) but I think if I did have an issue, I would go to a major hosp to give me a better chance of someone knowing what APS is....
Consistently good out of hours here in Birmingham, in the sense they are usually *over* cautious about APS. As soon as I mention to paramedics/111/out of hours GP call centre that I have APS and specifically mention stroke/brain clots/DVT/kidney clots, then it's straight into out of hours GP or A&E I go. If it's the GP, then usually within two hours, and a five minute drive. More often than not they prefer me to go straight to A&E.
If it's A&E, because of the same history, once in A&E I'm usually triaged pretty fast by a nurse, see an initial doctor usually within 30-60 minutes, tests and scans done pretty fast, and kept in overnight (in Acute Medical, not usually formally admitted) for more specialist examinations the next morning. Can't really complain. Pretty good set up with some pretty knowledgeable docs.
Also given the Rheumatology on call number for the on call Rheumatologist out of hours. Such that if I'm really not happy or struggling, and I want a rheumatologist to talk to the docs, or come down a see me, then I can ring direct. If I ask, the docs will usually call up the on-call haematology team too to double check about anti-coagulation.
For example, A&E docs couldn't decide if I had phlebitis or a DVT. A call to haematology told them to treat as a though I have a DVT (due to the APS) even if waiting for confirmation. And the reason I was there in the first place was because sent straight down by out of hours.
