Seldoc!

[Fuschia]

Last January we had the awful exoperience of twin nno 2 having a convulsion, and after rushing to hospital by ambulance requiring a cherst xray, blood and urine tests and an awful lumbar puncture and high dose IV antibiotics, 6 days as an inpatient with a serious kidney infection

This was despite me taking her to seldoc as I was worried at her having a fever and vomitting for more than 5 days

As a re3sult of this terrible experience, I am now something of an expert on the NICE guidelines on fever in babies - namely that investigations are required after 5 days+ of unexplained fever

Fast fwd a year and twin I has a prolonged fever. I take him to seldoc on day 6 and day 8, both times they say it is prob a virus. and viruses can last up to 10 days.

I KNEW this wasn't right and took him to a&e on day 10, they did a chest xray, bloods, urine test (thank goodness held off on the lumbar puncture)

Turned out he has pneumonia.

Now,once might be an excusable, but to miss potentially life threatening diseases in TWO of my children, not suggesting tests which the NICE guidelines recommend... !!

[FatherJack]

Ahhhhhhh SELDOC where to begin......

1) Outside SELDOC with a four year old who had a head injury, we were turned away because I hadn't phoned

prior to visiting. Apparently they have a procedure that MUST be followed.

2) A friend's teenage daughter was staying with us and was having what turned out to be a panic attack (I had never seen one before) but given that she has asthma I called SELDOC. The phone operator was more interested in where her mother was. I told them she was in hospital with her younger daughter. What's wrong with her daughter? At this point I said are you going to send someone or not. I should explain that this was about 3am and I was home alone with my children and friend's daughter.

She said they would send someone, we waited several hours and when I called back they told me that I had said that I would visit them.

I should have put a complaint in writing in both cases but didn't. I don't use SELDOC anymore.

Fuschia......I wish your little one a speedy recovery ! Best wishes

[linzkg]

Fuschia - that's awful that they missed that! Not suprised you have no faith in the service but very weirdly I was considering putting up a thread to say how great my experience with SELDOC has been - just yesterday my 7 month old son fell terribly sick very quickly due to a bad reaction to something so his neck blew up in a red and white rash, then it got into his eyes, projectile vomiting followed this, and we had to get onto them - they called us back in no time - only to tell us to go straight to the hospital - and they saw him immediately. I had to use them a few months back and again they looked after me.

[its always good to know the other side though - I'll be prepared for it now - thanks!]

[Belle]

Oh my god - Fuschia that's terrible! I hope your little one makes a swift recovery, at least now you've got diagnosis and appropriate treatment. ARgh it does not instil faith does it? And Father Jack likewise with your stories - trouble is who DO we use in out of hours? I remember being told at A&E (the kids bit) when we went in once with my son on a Thurs, to make sure we went back on the Fri if no improvement as the weekend is just 'an NHS blackhole' - their words. Again, not instilling confidence...

[buggie]

FatherJack - I'd suggest with both those things coming straight to ED at Kings would have been fully appropriate as they were both emergencies.

SELDOC is good at seeing GP stuff (and really wish more would be using them with the D&V for a few hrs than rolling up to the ED) but esp if you've seen a GP already but there still hasn't been improvement then ED would be the logical next step.

[Smiler]

Fuschia, have you complained to SELDOC in writing? They should know what has happened.

[Fuschia]

I called the GPs and exlained what had happened and they said the manager would call me but noone called. I will call again today.

The drs we saw were quite plesanat. Just ineffectual and missed that T should have gone to the hospital for further tests. I am guessing that when you say it's day 8 ofa fever, they assume you're exaggerating!!!

[Smiler]

Shocking. Would be good plan to follow up in writing, as written complaints are more likely to be followed-up and recorded, e.g. for when they report to the PCT on the service. One would also hope that the managers would follow up with the individual GP concerned.

[LordshipLaneMum]

I echo the awful experience with SELDOC. I had violent stabbing pains in my left side. Described to SELDOC, who first told me I had food poisioning, then after me screaming that it wasnt, then prescribed me over the phone pain killers. Thought that just wasnt right and went with my gut instinct and called Kings A&E, was there within 15 mins (on the bus!) and within an hour was having an emergency operation to remove a very large ovarian cyst. Would never trust them again.

[ABC]

What Can I say About them You call them (Crystal Palace Road Surgery) straight away they say "sorry we have no appointments"(at 8.50am) then you just say can i speak to a doctor or nurse and suddenly there is space. They Are Just so bad that i changed my doctors!!!.

[Fuschia]

Well, still no response from DMC, apparently they have no practice manager atm.

[Smiler]

SELDOC itself will have a service manager. The GP surgery may just refer you to SELDOC anyway. Think it is the primary care trust that commissions out-of-hours GP services, not the GP practices.

[Emski]

I complained about one of the docs at DMC and got a call back a couple of weeks later. It was over Xmas, so wasn't too put out by the delay. I'm not sure whether they would be the right organisation to complain to about Seldoc tho. Pretty bl**dy serious complaint, however!