"Lack of care"

My 15 year old child fainted at home and had sore ears with a high temperature and a rash. I called Western urgent care as this happened on a weekend.

I was told i would get a call back from a nurse within the hour. I did not get a call back until 3 hours later. A nurse made the phonecall and put myself and my child through what felt like a 40 minute interrogation! They repeatedly spoke over me and wanted to speak to my child, they kept repeating the same questions and when my child tried to answer seemed to deflect from what they were telling them. My child had fainted and the nurse kept saying maybe they just felt dizzy. They sighed and laughed at times during the call.

Near the end of the call they said they would have to put me on hold to see if they could get an appointment and that there was a chance there wouldn't be any. The appointment they then gave was just after midnight and this was the earliest appointment from them speaking to us in the early afternoon. I refused the appointment and went to my local pharmacy for advice.

Then a few hours later a different nurse phoned to say there was a cancellation so could i bring my child up in the early evening. When we arrived at out of hours service in Altnagelvin there was no other patients there. We sat for over 30 minutes waiting to be seen, a doctor took my child's temperature, sounded their chest and looked in their ears and said they looked dull. They put it down to flu and being a teenager. No prescription even though my child had ear pain and they could see her ears were dull. I also felt they were very unprofessional by talking about their own personal matters, while my child was needing attention.

I had to treat my child with pain relief until i could get a GP appointment on the Monday. The GP prescribed an antibiotic for my child's inner ear infection which caused them to faint and have a high temperature and rash.  

My child has an underlying medical condition which they take daily medication for and this was also overlooked by Western urgent care when i had highlighted it several times.

I'm disgusted at the treatment received.