Out of hours GP service.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8455971.stm

I don't know if anyone watched Newsnight last night with Jeremy Paxman interviewing a government health secretary re the death of a Cambridgeshire man?

Has anyone had experience with the out of hours service? We have twice, once when my son was in excrutiating pain - we had to rush him to hospital ourselves where he was given an emergency operation.
The second time my hubby was taken ill, we phoned the out of hours GP who spoke to me over the phone and said he would visit. I waited and waited until OH was so ill I rang his dad who took us to the hospital where OH was admitted for a week with suspected pancreatitis.

I do have to add we have a Walk in Centre in town where you can be seen by a nurse or GP [if necessary] and that is a fantastic service.
What are your views?

 

The only time I ever needed one I spoke to a triage nurse around 2am. It was for me. I live alone and there was no one local who I could contact to help me. She told me a doctor would call back within the hour and one did - only just within the hour but it happened and after describing what was wrong (I had a bowel obstruction) the ambulance was there in about 30 minutes.

Pretty efficient overall.

Actually, should it have been necessary I have neighbours who clearly would have helped but I was too ill to think straight and waking them in the middle of the night didn't not occur to me. It was hard enough calling the out of hours doctor. When it is for yourself it is hard to be rational.

 

If you think it's a real problem or even if you are unsure, don't bother with trying to get "out of hours service" just ring 999 for an ambulance. If the paramedics who attend think it's serious and they don't take chances, you'll get seen at casualty quicker than those waiting. I don't trust "out of hours services," or any where they try to diagnose a problem over the phone.

 

Yes, I have experienced it, and it was quite good but that was a while ago. Since then I have had a doctor point blank refuse to come out to my terminally ill father-in-law, so I understand the family's greivances.

 

Twenty years ago, my mother's GP had been called out to see her as she was having difficulty breathing. Having seen her the doctor was about to leave, when my mum said "Can you have a quick look at my husband, he's having pains in his arm."
She said abruptly; "Tell him to make an appointment" and left.
The poor woman did that, she was trying to get the surgery on the phone while my dad was actually then having a heart attack and was dying.

 

That's just awful DR. No excuses-she was there already, what a witch ( swap the W for the more appropiate consonant)

 

Last winter I had the flu, and a secondary infection that left untreated would almost certainly have killed me (I found that out later). Barely having the strength to stand, and gasping for breath even at rest, I phoned NHS direct for advice. I considered phoning for an ambulance but didn't realise just how ill I was. I was advised to go to the walk in GP clinic, 10 miles away. I drove there (still not realising just how poorly I was), just driving with power steering and all the usual aides, I felt like I was pushing myself to my physical limit and had to sit in the car and rest for a few minutes in the car park before going in to see the doctor.

After an examination, I was told (to my horror) that one lung was not functioning at all, and the other was about half full of mucus, so in effect I was operating on considerably less than half my lung capacity. No wonder I didn't feel well. The doctor prescribed a very strong course of antibiotics and stressed that I MUST collect them and start them asap. He was a good chap, but every other aspect of the NHS service leading up to me seeing him left a lot to be desired.

 

An inquest into the deaths of two patients in Cambridgeshire treated by a German doctor on his first shift in the UK is starting in Wisbech.

David Gray, 70, died in 2008 from an overdose of the painkiller diamorphine after being seen by Dr Daniel Ubani, who arrived in the UK the previous day.

Iris Edwards, 86 - Dr Ubani's next patient - later died of a heart attack.

Mr Gray's family say the case raises questions over the use of overseas doctors for evening and weekend cover.

This is really worrying to say the least. We put our trust in our doctors-well I do I must admit.

 

jazmine when i had teribble pains in my leg recently i called the out of hour service around 6pm and i was told a doctor would call me back within an hour and they never did call till the next morning, i had called my own doctor by then and my doctors got me in that morning an hour later, thats when i found out i had tendonitus.