"Covid assessment "

I am a 59 year old and have been in isolation in my home with my and daughter for 5 weeks. Because of my auto immune condition I have stay shielded for 12 weeks as advised. This last week I felt particularly ill with all the Covid symptoms etc.

After numerous verbal assessments by clinicians I was referred to an out of hours practice in Dudley where I was lead to believe I would be physically assessed for Covid 19 as my condition got worse over the last few days. Wrong, he verbally assessed me again and suggest I go to any A&E as soon as possible. Why my GP didn’t suggest that I don’t know, anyway

I chose to go New Cross and when entering I half expected the waiting area to be overwhelmed with people reporting in sick with Covid. I gave my details to the receptionist standing back on a yellow line. I sat in a enclosed part of the waiting area.

I was surprised to get called by a nurse in a 10 minute despite how exhaustingly busy they are the background.

After being assessed the nurse brought in a doctor and confirmed after again explanations that I was coping well with my symptoms. given my readings he expected I would recover over the next 3 days given the length of time in isolation for past 5 weeks when I first contracted mild symptoms. I was told to stay off immune suppressants for week.

I wasn’t tested for Covid however the doctor managed to assure me not to worry as he could see I was anxious and shaking.

The doctor explained how bad patients are before they admitted.

Though I felt dreadfully unwell I felt 60% of it was my in my head mentally putting me in panic mode. I went back home and slept better. I firmly believe the face to face meeting made all the difference to me by the professional team in the A&E department. Great and Friendly despite the incredibly busy tasks they are faced with everyday.