111, Out of Hours and A&E

stickywicket

It was never my intention to do a 'Mystery Shopper' report on my local 111 / Out of Hours / A & E services but life had other plans for me on Monday evening. Around 7pm I became aware of- mild itching round my knicker / trouser lines and underarms. By 8pm I had to investigate the now-nasty itching. Not good. Big, raised, lumpy, hot, red areas which, by 8.30pm were increasing and multiplying and filling my entire stomach, upper leg, chest area. I had to let Mr SW in on it. Mistake. He wanted me to dial 111 instantly. He always wants instant results. I resisted but by 9pm I was sitting naked to the knees (Sorry about the mental image :oops: ) giving off enough body heat to power a fair few light bulbs.

11pm – I capitulated and dialled 111. A lovely Welsh chap took notes and told me someone from Out of Hours would ring back within 2 hours.

1.20am – Still no call. Stuff getting worse. I dial 111. A nice lady says my area's Out of Hours is very busy but she calls them for me and says they will ring me within the hour

2.30am – I ring 111 again. I tell Oliver I quite understand that potentially nasty things must take priority but it's still breaking out in new places. (I'm a tad anxious about it aiming for my throat – never a good area for me.) Oliver says that's not the point. I'm important too and I've waited too long already. He calls Out of Hours again and arranges for me to be their next call.

3.45am – I ring Oliver, thank him and say I'm heading for A & E. And we do.

4.20am – Arrive at an almost deserted A & E. Am seen immediately by kind, friendly Staff Nurse S then earnest young medic G asks if he might take some notes. Finally, Doc K arrives, says it seems like an allergy. Asks me all the questions I've asked myself (Food? New meds? New soap, laundry powder etc?) and leaves again.

4.45 – Staff nurse S comes with water and an anti-histamine to help the itching until Doc K returns. I swallow it. Nothing changes.

5.15 – She returns. Any joy? No.

5.45am – She returns with another anti-histamine. I take it.

Many of the night staff are now making their way home to bed. How I envy them!

6.45am – Doc K returns to find me almost asleep on the chair, head dangling near knees, Mr SW obligingly holding up my blouse at the back to let some air onto the current itchiest bits. I report a slight improvement. He is sure it's an allergy, unlikely to be related to the cracked root or anything else I could come up with and equally sure we'll probably never find the culprit. He gives me some more anti-histamines to take home, apologising that they've no longer-lasting ones in the department.

7.40am – Arrive home. Two answerphone messages from Doc ? of Out of Hours. Left at 4am and 4.30am. Something about informing my GP. Can't be bothered to listen again properly.

7.45am – Remove shoes, set alarm for 9.45am (As I have a dental appt re the root that cracked, climb into bed fully clothed and fall instantly asleep until the alarm goes off two hours later. I am still very, very itchy though the areas are on the move. I grab my anti-histamines. The label says no more than three in 24 hours. It's 9.45am and I've already had two The air turns blue.

10am – Mr SW takes charge (as I'm very creaky). Rings our GP. I'm to see her at 10.30am. I abandon seductive cuppa and try to perform basic ablutions instead.

10.25am – Doc L has had something from 111 / Out of Hours but I'm not sure what. She says they'd probably have only sent me to A & E anyway. She agrees with the verdict and prescribes some stronger, longer-lasting antihistamines (One per day) and says take it around midday when the other is out of my system.

I make it, early, to the dentist. I intend to sleep in the afternoon but my body isn't playing ball. It wanted to sleep all night and I wouldn't let it. It was happily asleep this morning and I woke it up. It has decided I can **** well stay awake now. So I did, and dozed, and was kept supplied with tea and biscuits by my beloved spouse. And the anti-histamine worked and the 'plague' moved lower down my legs, even thicker and denser but I didn't care cos it didn't itch and wasn't giving off tropical heat. And I had an early night and woke up plague-free this morning.

Verdict
111 – Kind, friendly, efficient and did their best.
Out of Hours – Hopeless. Simply too many patients and not enough qualified medics.
A & E – Quiet, efficient.
GP – My heros, as ever.

dibdab

Hope the itching has subsided somewhat, what a complicated thing we humans are.

Reading your post just made me pause and reflect on just how fortunate we are with the NHS free at the point of delivery. Folks use it, abuse it and criticise it, but where would we creaky beings be without it!

So on behalf of all in my house just wanted to register and enormous "THANK YOU" to all those dedicated NHS folks who keep us functioning ....even when function is a misnomer on the bad days :? .

Deb x

theresak

Oh dear Sticky - what a terrible night. I`m not thrilled with the 111 service, as you know, but I would have done exactly the same as you and phoned it. I`m glad you went to A & E and got some treatment. It sounds like urticaria - where you get covered in horrible itchy hives which move fast and breed & multiply incredibly quickly. I got them as a teenager & almost lived on anti-histamines.

I`m glad they are less troublesome now - it certainly sounds like something has triggered them and caused this awful reaction. Something similar happened to Nick in France in June, - he was covered all over and had to see a doctor. We`d gone to a pharmacist first to be told "Non, le Docteur!" He was given antihistamine too, but we inadvertently found the culprit a week later, when he`d been swigging Orangina & the same thing happened.

Until the Out of Hours is better manned - or womanned - it will not work efficiently, no matter how many times they tell us to use it instead of A & E.

I hope you stay spot/lump/itch free,

Tezz x

Megrose489

So pleased that things have settled down now, Sticky. What a terrible night you had.

We have a 24 hour clinic attached to your local hospital. If you phone the local surgery number, it is put through to the clinic out of hours and you are triaged by a nurse who, if necessary, makes an appointment for you to be seen by a doctor in the next couple of hours. I've had to do this a few times when I've started with a UTI and badly needed antibiotics. It seems to work very well.

Take care of yourself and I hope you manage to work out what started the whole thing - just so you don't have a repeat experience!

dachshund

Hello Sticky
how are you feeling now I hope you tablets are working.
take care
joan xx

mig

Hope you're feeling better.Mig

stickywicket

Thanks everyone for your good wishes. Yes, we're all pretty much sure it was urticaria / hives / nettlerash but I've had that twice in the past and nothing like this. First time (around 40 years ago was very mild. I watched them appearing and disappearing like ripples on a pool. Second time (around 30 yrs ago), after my one and only meal of crab, was a bit worse but merely interesting. Monday's were huge, hot and itchy, came but didn't go and took over large areas of me.

Tezz, if your Nick did it in a hot climate he has my utmost sympathy. Mr SW was blowing cool breath onto mine

Starburst

Gosh, you don't do things by half measures do ya, Stickster?! I'm glad you're feeling a bit brighter and less itchy.

Boomer13

Hoping you continue to improve, Sticky with no relapses. Eeek!

dreamdaisy

Hello, how are things today? I admit I've never been sure about the role of 111 (they are also being held partly responsible for the increased numbers of A&E attendance) and I have only had one experience of the out-of-hours service (which was memorable for all the right reasons including a quick response from a doc and ambulance into hospital) but for you to be left for so long without any kind of follow-up does not reflect well on the service. Anyway, to the more important matter of how are you now? I sincerely hope you are rash-free! DD

Numptydumpty

Crikey Sticky! That was a night and a half!
I too hope things have settled down now, and you've caught up on missed sleep. It might be a good idea to keep some long lasting anti-histamine by you, just in case.
Take care,
Numpty

stickywicket

No relapses and, Numpty (Lovely to see you ), I shall definitely add the anti-histamines to my extensive travel list.

My conclusions are that, given the percentage of nuisance and abusive calls, the old NHS Direct probably wasted money by having medics where simple telephonists would suffice but the newer 111 service also wastes money by not having enough proper medical back-up hence the number of people simply by-passing it and rolling up at A&E or calling an ambulance. I certainly wouldn't trust them with anything urgent.

villier

Glad to see you are feeling better Sticky no half measures for you. I must admit the couple of times I have had to call 111 I have had a really quick response maybe I have just been lucky. xx

barbara12

Blimey SW what a nightmare night that was for you, its not good when things start falling apart like this..not you the NHS we haven't had to phone 111 has yet ,but did get good service of NHS direct..I hope that things are easing up for you,and you have caught up with your sleep...x

mig

Glad things have settled,i wonder what triggered it ? Mig

Slosh

Sorry it's taken me a while to catch up with this, glad you're starting to feel better.
My area has an out of hours GP service based at the local hospital which is very good.

stickywicket

Please don't apologise, Slosh. How you manage to find time to get on here to support others is a mystery to me. You have the OA limitations, the work and the physio to fit in. I hope you're managing to keep all the balls in the air still.

JamesFoote

There are big problems with the 111 number.

We have used it twice and in the first a doctor was called to see me
There was no point in this and was a wast of time
The second for my wife an ambulance was called to our home again there was no need. They asked he if she wanted to go to hospital but you are ok and not going to die. So we did not go.

The problem is 111 gets to doctor or ambulance much to quickly and this puts great strain on the NHS

James