"Going downhill"

My 1yo son has had persistent problems that has meant back and forth to the GP for months now.

Saw someone yesterday - unsure what their qualification even was as no one said - I assumed it was an emergency doctors appointment, as I had requested. But it wasn't. Straight away I got extremely frustrated as the recurrent theme seems to be that no one can read the history before my son is seen. The first question is always "so what's bought him in today" and it is getting ridiculous how many times I have to recount what has happened and what's going on.

However that is not specific to the woman he was seen by yesterday. My complaint is that he was barely triaged and immediately told us to take him to A&E as she was unable to assess and felt he needed a specialist to assess. I specifically asked if she could refer us to A&E or the specialist at Musgrove so we could be seen by the right person and not sit in A&E for hours to be triaged and she said "it's the same process either way". I asked if it would at least be on his notes and she said yes. But it wasn't even accurate when the consultant at A&E looked. So we went to A&E, and sat there for 5 hours, by which time the specialist my son needed to see had gone home. We finally saw a nurse and another consultant who had to call the on call specialist consultant. It was a simple call and assessment. But all agreed that it could have been solved hours earlier had the person we saw at the GP surgery referred in properly. So now I'm £15.50 out for musgrove car park, my son spent an unnecessary evening in A&E, I have PTSD and am triggered by hospitals - the length of exposure could have been reduced drastically.

All of it could have been avoided had someone done their job properly.

I feel like there are so many great doctors and most of the nurses etc are so lovely and do their best but there is a lot letting the surgery down at the same time. Specifically who we saw yesterday was just really frustrating, but also just generally I feel like there is a lack of communication and a lack of deeper consideration, which is leading to missing things and putting extra stress on patients who are having to take so much responsibility to push, fight and question and remember all the details.