nhs direct

I wouldn't want to ring it without good reason because I'm sure they get a lot of phone calls anyway.

In fact I'm not even sure I would want to ring them unless it was an absolute last resort because I'm not altogether keen on the idea. The whole idea of health service by phone doesn't really fill me full of confidence.

I much prefer a real live doctor if I can get one - which isn't easy these days.
 
this service was used for my lad. we telephoned them, gave his symptoms, she had a qualified nurse ring back in less than 5 mins, she gave a appointment with a emergency doctor at queens park, the doctor saw him, said it was his appendix, rang blackburn royal, sorted a bed, he was being operated on 2 hours after the first phone call. quicker than trying to get your own doctor to come .
 
That's excellent service. The only previous accounts I've heard from other people were very discouraging ones where they were more or less fobbed off. Good to know that in an emergency situation they reacted so well.
 
I have never dealt directly with them, but we get a lot of referrals from them, most of which are completely unnecessary. It is difficult trying to get a history from somebody over the telephone. Most people are very wishy- washy about their symptoms. If you mention a symptom to someone they suddenly have it, even if they have never mentioned it before. It happens where I work all the time. It's good to hear that they can react well in an emergency but all we see are the hundreds of needless admissions to us and I'm not exaggerating. We have just over 3700 deliveries per year but well over 12000 admissions to labour ward roughly 3.5 admissions per person. Bear in mind that some people don't attend until they are actually in labour therefore only have 1 admission and a small number of people who do attend before labour are genuinely in need of admission. The majority of people we see could be treated by the GP or take 2 paracetamol at home.
 
I've used them in the past, I ended up with a nosebleed during the night. After 60 mins of gushing I was getting a little worried, SWMBO rang them and they said I should play safe and go to casualty. It bled like billyho all the way there and stopped just as the doctor started looking at me.

I think it is a good idea to run symptons past someone. Perhaps their training needs be balanced between filtering out needless referrals and making sure that all true emergecies are identified. Imagine the outcry if 1 case was missed.
 
i had to ring nhs direct when my daughters face swelled up, i rang gave the symptoms they said a nurse will call shortly a hour later i got a call saying dont worry we havent forgotten you the nurse will call a couple of hours later the nurse called i went through it all again they said she needs to see the doc that night and ive to call my own doctor this was a sunday night and the monday was a bank holiday, tried to get through to the doc on the moblie number given after trying and trying to no avail i rang back to the nhs direct as instructed to do so if i couldnt get through to the doc, ran through the symptoms again and got the nurse will call back shortly couple of hours later (10pm) i got a call dont worry we havent forgot the nurse will call at this time i told them to cancel the nurse i would try agin the next day. The first call was made around 3pm by 10pm my 5 year old little girl had not been seen by anyone. Lucky enough the swelling went down the next day and she was ok but what if she hadnt of been.
 
Glad to hear she was OK but it's stories like this which really make me think that instead of creating nhs direct the money would have been better used in improving what we already have/had.
 
i cannot knock NHS direct, i called them for the 1st time in august 04 at about 3AM, with really bad toothache (thought i was dying), and the got me an emergency appointment for 9AM the same day to have it yanked!
 
MUMMIBOO said:
i had to ring nhs direct when my daughters face swelled up, i rang gave the symptoms they said a nurse will call shortly a hour later i got a call saying dont worry we havent forgotten you the nurse will call a couple of hours later the nurse called i went through it all again they said she needs to see the doc that night and ive to call my own doctor this was a sunday night and the monday was a bank holiday, tried to get through to the doc on the moblie number given after trying and trying to no avail i rang back to the nhs direct as instructed to do so if i couldnt get through to the doc, ran through the symptoms again and got the nurse will call back shortly couple of hours later (10pm) i got a call dont worry we havent forgot the nurse will call at this time i told them to cancel the nurse i would try agin the next day. The first call was made around 3pm by 10pm my 5 year old little girl had not been seen by anyone. Lucky enough the swelling went down the next day and she was ok but what if she hadnt of been.
Click to expand...
If that had been my daughter I would have taken her straight to casualty, no messing about.

You can't be too careful with childrens' health
 
I cant really fault nhs direct whom ive rung a few times as cant get assistance out of hrs, they have always aimed to do their level best n are very prompt
 
First time i had to ring them on Sunday had a stomach infection was absolutely racked with pain. Rang them at about 2pm had an appointment for 3.30pm was out within 30 mins with a course of antibiotics. Can't fault them superb job
 
Last edited:
Vorlon, we actually had our coats on to go to casualty, but as a last minute thought i rang the nhs to see if casualty was the right place to go as i know casualty is a very buzy place to be on a bank holiday weekend! Her face was not bothering her in the slightest, so it probably best to be waiting at home with a 5 year old than waiting for hours in casualty where she would have been bored to tears and i would have got very stressed trying to keep her from running riot around the hospital.
And like i said her face went down the next day so it wasnt really an emergency.
 
Never had any problems myself, suppose it takes people away from going to A+E for a bad cold at weekends.:mad:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top