I'm really angry. Should I complain?

Person_one

I don't think anybody is being unkind, maybe a little blunt, but the OP is taking the advice very well.

The cut had already been cleaned and dressed by the OP, it wasn't serious (which is something that might have been more obvious to everybody else than to the admittedly panicked OP) and they were directed to the right place to get help, which they got.

I've seen people put in ambulances from GPs surgeries plenty of times, if its necessary they call one, but it wasn't this time.

Valli

Cherry_Bomb wrote: »

An emergency?

Well, the OP seemed to think it was an emergency.

Valli

ska_lover wrote: »

Sorry, but I don't see why people are being unkind..all the OP was looking for initially was some BASIC first aid, and if doctors and nurses at the GPs practice aren't trained in first aid then god help us if an injured child cannot be looked at because they cannot provide this!!

It would not have hurt and only cost minutes for a nurse to put a dressing on, and point her in the direction of the A&E dept.

A couple of years back, I was sat in my GP's surgery when one of my neighbours walked in looking very ill. He asked to see someone as a emergency appointment as was struggling to breathe. The doctors receptionist gave him a real patronising attitude and basically looked down her nose at him whilst telling him he had come to the wrong place and told him he should use public transport to get himself to hospital as he wasn't poorly enough to warrant an ambulance and the GPs could not see him. Whilst on his two - bus journey to take himself to hospital, the poor bloke collapsed of a heart attack and died. I do not think the doctors receptionist, with her zero years of medical training should be giving advice like this to people! There were people sitting there waiting for these so called 'emergency' GP doctors appointments with coughs and colds, but breathing difficulties..no they send you out the door..

Most people would not turn an injured or sick animal away, but a human being, different kettle of fish

Theres just no compassion anymore. People will not go above and beyond or out of their way to help anyone...even if they are getting paid 70k a year to do so!

No some people DO go above and beyond. When DD was small I went to the emergency surgery they ran on a Saturday; doctor listened to her breathing, rung for an ambulance and put her on the nebuliser. When he phoned the ambulance he stressed that, as she was in the surgery and there was a nebuliser it didn't warrant a 999/blue light job.

The ambulance then took about 2 hours+ to turn up.

Even after the end of surgery though the GP didn't leave us - he stayed until the ambulance did show up, whereupon she was admitted to hospital, way after the end of surgery. So HE went above and beyond and my daughter survived her first asthma attack.

What happened to your neighbour was awful - but possibly the receptionist figured if he was 'well' enough to walk into the surgery then he wasn't presenting as an emergency case. Doctor's receptionists don't, as a rule, see patients presenting who are in critical or near critical conditions.

ska_lover

Sounds like you have a fantastic GP there Valli, I am really glad to hear your little girl got the care she needed.

I think some people are better equipped to stay calm and deal with emergencies than others. I, myself am a huge panicker. If I was to collapse, I would not want to be looked after by someone like me!

Luckily when my lad was little, there was only one incident which involved a hospital visit and rather luckily a friend, who is a nurse happened to be visiting at the time

Molly41

silly_moo wrote: »

I think this situation has given me the final push to enrol into a first aid course. I will also be putting the NHS 24 and the local taxis numbers on my mobile so I can call them quickly should anything happen.

I did have half a mind to call an ambulance but decided that it's better left for people who really need it. Although if my neighbour hadn't come home at that particular time and I had no one to ask for help, I don't know how I would have acted.

I didn't realise not all doctors/surgeries can deal with cuts/stitches. I thought it was one of the basic skills each doctor/nurse should possess. It only took the doctor at A&E a few minutes to clean and dress the wound and he didn't need proper stitches, just the paper ones. Surely a doctor at the surgery should be able to do that and maybe then waiting times at A&E wouldn't be that long

I see the point though and will not be complaining.

My GP surgery would have seen you - if you had been registered. I have gone in with my second son on a couple of occasions and he has been seen straight away.

It is a very good ida to do a child first aid course - Red Cross or St Johns run them locally or through a Children's Centre.

It is also perfectly normal to panic. I am a Midwife and trained to think logically and act calmly in a crisis - all that went out of a window when one of mine was injured - so dont beat yourself up x

coolcait

It's been a rough day.

Your baby was hurt. You panicked. You went to the nearest medical practice. That happened to be your GP. You were signposted onto A&E - the best place to go under the circumstances.

You've already been given plenty of helpful advice on how to prepare yourself - as a mum - for the fact that your children have the ability to find increasingly inventive ways of hurting themselves.

Use those tips to find ways to deal with the crises.

Please don't complain about the events of today. You have no grounds for doing so.

LannieDuck

To those saying to call 999 for a cut foot - seriously?! Unless the baby's losing a lot of blood, why would you call a paramedic? They're supposed to be there for life-threatening and other serious injuries.

OP, I'm sorry you had a fright, and I hope your LO's ok now. I agree the doctor could have responded better. Popping out to take a look, give you a gauze patch to hold over it and direct you to A&E would have been better. Or if there was a nurse at the surgery, they could have dressed it and then suggested that next time you go to A&E.

GP surgeries do deal with emergencies if they have to, but I suspect the receptionist took a decision that this wasn't an emergency. I don't think (s)he should have done that, and should have had a medically trained person take a look (unless it was very obviously a minor cut - it's difficult to tell from your description...). You get too many stories in the news of patients that are triaged and made to wait by receptionists when they have serious issues. My boss (a doctor) drove her husband (also a doctor) to the GP surgery when he had a serious allergic reaction, because it was closer than A&E. They also had some trouble convincing the receptionist that they needed to be seen (all they really wanted was an epi-pen)... until the husband went blue and collapsed in front of the desk!

We have a walk-in centre near to us which we've used twice for minor things for my LO that really needed to be looked at quickly, but weren't serious enough for A&E (a small scald and a rash that was probably ok, but we felt that we needed to get checked out). Perhaps you could check if you have one near you? They're open at weekends too.

We did a baby first aid course before LO arrived, and it's been very useful. Not for the specific knowledge (you hope you'll never have to do CPR or dress a serious wound), but for a general idea of what a serious injury/burn/event is. It's helped us to work out when to worry and when not to worry.

GlasweJen

Receptionist: Doctor, there's a crying lady in reception with blood on her hands that wants you to see to her babies foot.

Doctor: what's wrong with the foot?

Receptionist: I don't know it's already been dressed.

Doctor: well if the lady is still concerned send her to A&E, all I could do is dress it.


What is there to complain about? Maybe you should have washed your hands in between dressing your babies foot and taking him to a GPs surgery, taking a few deep breaths and counting to 10 might have helped too. Perhaps the duty doctor could have came out and reassured you instead of dealing with the people who were waiting to see him and had actually booked in? He could have looked at your dressing and seen that it was still bleeding and then said "this might need butterfly stitches but we don't keep them here in the practice" would that have made you feel better?

You went to the wrong place with your child, this isn't the fault of the doctor, his receptionist or anyone else but you. Learning how to deal with these problems in the future is what you should be concentrating on, not writing letters to people who were busy going about their actual job and didn't take time out to deal with your hysteria.

LannieDuck

GlasweJen wrote: »

He could have looked at your dressing and seen that it was still bleeding and then said "this might need butterfly stitches but we don't keep them here in the practice" would that have made you feel better?

Actually, I suspect that would have made her feel a lot better.

GlasweJen

LannieDuck wrote: »

Actually, I suspect that would have made her feel a lot better.

And I think it would have just resulted in the OP writing a complaint because it would have added more gravity to the situation in a sort of "oh god he needs stitches but the doctor wouldn't do them" sort of way.