"Unable to get anyone to help"

My young daughter received a tick bite at the weekend and we removed the tick but unfortunately a bit of the tick was left in and we couldn't get it out.

On Monday I tried to call our local surgery for advice. The receptionist said they don't deal with tick bites and to go to the pharmacist.

Pharmacist said they couldn't remove it and to go to the doctor.

Called surgery again to be told to phone 111 for minor injuries.

111 message stated that as it was within doctors hours to go to doctor and cut me off.

Eventually, after calling another local surgery, we managed to get an appointment for a nurse to see us at a local Treatment Room at 4:30 in the afternoon (after being on calls since 9am) - they confirmed that it should be removed...but they can't do it, I need to go to minor injuries at the hospital.

Again, called 111 and received a message that as it was within doctors hours that I had to go to doctor.

Anyway, waited until after 6pm and phoned 111 again and got to speak to a lovely operator and nurse and was called back by a Clinician who said to be safe to have it removed and to attend our A&E the next morning when it was quieter.

Thankfully we were seen within an hour and the triage nurse manage to remove it but said if they couldn't get it out it would have been approx 6 hour wait to have it seen to - we were with the nurse for less than 5 minutes.

I am pro NHS and fortunately don't need to burden them often but I am disappointed that my local surgery was so unhelpful to the point where they couldn't even see my daughter and assess the wound. It really seems pointless that they are there at all if they can't do anything and just send us to A&E. I feel the processes and red tape really need to be reviewed. It seems crazy to burden A&E with a simple procedure that takes them away from dealing with people with more urgent needs.