"Emergency Out of Hours visit"

I’ve been meaning to write this for some time now.

On a Friday in December, I took surprisingly really unwell on a journey to Glasgow. I have never been sick so randomly in all my life. Anyway, when I arrived home I also had discovered I had a very high temperature.

I truly didn’t want to call NHS24 as firstly, I know how busy nhs fife are and I often see there posts about out of hours which made me think what was wrong was not as severe as others and also, because I had a high temperature I just thought “awch they’ll treat it as covid”

Anyway, due to my Mum making me make the call, around 11pm, I was surprised to have a return call around 1.30am, I was impressed with this return time. (Normally they say around 4 hours), this Dr was quite possible the nicest Dr I have ever met in my life and I’m not exaggerating.

This Dr knew something wasn’t right and asked me to come in within the hour, I had asked if I could just wait longer and he expressed his concern on the severity and whilst he didn’t make me think or panic as though something serious was happening, he made me feel as though I really did the right thing by calling.

Anyway, I was asked to go to the Out of hours assessment centre (I think that’s what it was called at. 2.30am) from previous experiences, I was so shocked when I arrived when they actually took me at 2.30 am. The female Dr / or nurse was soooo lovely, I felt so Ill and she really instantly made me feel at ease. You don’t realise how much someone saying they like your shoes and making you smile matters when you feel so unwell. 

They did all appropriate tests and more. The Dr was kind enough to do tests like the PCR that NHS24 had recommended I do anyway but they were kind enough to save me another trip the following day to allow me to rest by just doing everything then and there. What also amazed me was I observed the team work between the two man and women, like they were just a great team. 

Incredibly efficient, so professional but just so “human”, empathetic, kind, really explained everything to me well so I knew what was actually going on, what each test meant and i was just so grateful to have also been seen face to face as well during these times. I’ve never seen happier people to be working at 2.30am before either haha (which btw, also really helps when you feel like you are on deaths door) this positivity really helped. 

I end up having a horrendous kidney infection and his quick response with getting me in and on antibiotics straight away probably made a huge difference. 

I just really felt this was so worth sharing because in 26 years, I’ve never had such a positive, kind, empathetic service within the NHS before and a lot of people should take a leaf out of this nurses and Dr’s book and they should be recognised for this.