My daughter’s partner called me at 7. 00 am in September asking me to go over as she was very unwell, vomiting and in a great deal of pain in her stomach. She had had diarrhoea since 4. 00 pm the day before and had to come home from work. She had wakened with vomiting fro 2. 00 am that morning and the pain in her abdomen was unbearable. I encouraged her to hold on until 8. 00 am until our GP was available but she was desperate for help so I rang NHS 24. This I did with dread from previous experiences which have not been helpful.
I relayed all her symptoms to the person who went through the usual checklist procedure but not without me running back and forth to my daughter, who was mostly having over the toilet being sick, asking her various questions. As my daughter had recently been told she had kidney stones and she also has ovarian cysts, I was extremely worried that it could be either of these things. By the time I finished speaking to NHS 24 they advised that as their doctors were now finished they were referring me back to our GP. I hung up. The time was now 7. 50 am. I rang the surgery and pressed 1 for emergency. The current climate of lack of GP’s has necessitated a triage system being set up in our practice for the first time. I spoke with someone and once again relayed all I’d been through with NHS 24 and again had to go and ask my daughter questions – I was then passed over to a GP who asked me how she could help, meaning I had to go through all the circumstances leading up to my phone call again. She then asked why I didn’t call an ambulance. By this time I was very upset myself, very concerned about my daughter and totally frustrated that I was getting nowhere and I was extremely angry when she said that because I was doing all I could to avoid that.
The ambulance arrived – the paramedics did their job and we were conveyed to the hospital where my daughter was taken for assessment. I was called in eventually, she was told she had gastroenteritis but she was still in considerable pain and this was causing my daughter much anxiety. She had been given paracetamol and anti-sickness medication on arrival at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary but the pain persisted. Eventually they decided to give her some fluids intravenously with the suggestion that that might help. After a while they told her she was being discharged and they would give her pain killers. She felt so unwell and asked for more pain relief and suggested she didn’t think she could get to the car – this was disregarded – the canula was removed and she was discharged. I was advised to ring the GP when we got home and ask for an emergency appointment or at least a call back from the GP to discuss what had happened.
I spoke with the Practice Manager on our return home and the doctor did call. On speaking to the doctor she said that the symptoms I had described sounded very serious and that is why she suggested the ambulance. I am a mother, I am not a doctor or a nurse, and in a distressing situation it isn’t easy to keep calm and carry on. She spoke with my daughter and arranged a prescription to be left at reception for some muscle relaxant tablets. The alternative was an emergency appointment at the surgery the same afternoon which my daughter did not feel well enough to attend.
I despair that anything more serious ever happens to any of my family – I feel this system clearly doesn’t work and just adds 100% to the already stressful situation. I felt the hospital didn’t think we should be there – but we had been advised to go there by the GP. We are not the kind of people who are serial abusers of the medical system which I appreciate is a major problem in the NHS. What with NHS 24, which in my opinion is a shambles, and the increasing shortage of GPs I wonder where this is all going to end.
"Trying to get help for my daughter"
About: Aberdeen Royal Infirmary / Emergency Medicine Aberdeen Royal Infirmary Emergency Medicine AB25 2ZN NHS 24 / NHS 24 (111 service) NHS 24 NHS 24 (111 service) Scottish Ambulance Service / Emergency Ambulance Scottish Ambulance Service Emergency Ambulance EH12 9EB
Posted by MoMomap (as ),
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