"I had to ring the GP Out of Hours Service"

I took an attack of vertigo on a Sunday. I went to Boots chemist to see if I could buy tablets over the counter. I would take an attack once a year but had no tablets left. They said I’d have to ring out of hours and catch the problem early before it got worse.

The OOH doctor rang back and was extremely rude to me. They said they didn’t know what I expected them to do and why was I ringing? I explained what the Boots pharmacist had said about catching it early. The doctor questioned me again about what they said and was very condescending about believing me. They said they didn’t believe it was important to catch it early.   They didn’t stock the tablets and what were they to do?

The doctor then tried to imply I was only ringing to get a repeat prescription whereas I was feeling really quite miserable. They refused to give me a prescription to take to the chemist on Monday morning. I asked if they could fax a prescription but got the rude reply that it didn’t work like that and what did I expect them to do. I hung up and burst into tears.