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111 service ..... What a joke!
Hotgossip
Posts: 22,385 Forum Member
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The leaflets and posters advertising this service sound great. Ring 111 in a non emergency and you'll get help and advice.
I've had seriously bad toothache for a week, seen dentist 3 times. On max painkillers and last night it got so bad I thought I needed to see an out of hours dentist. Rang 111 and explained the prob and was Told "this is probably not what you want to hear but there is no emergency dentist service in the whole of Norfolk. The earliest you can be seen anywhere is tomorrow." >:(. I think that's shocking considering we are one of the largest counties in the country.
What kind of service is that. Then to add insult to injury he said "please ring back if you need us ..... Don't feel you're on your own out there." But I am. They can offer me no help whatsoever so I'm in bed counting off the minutes until my local dentists opens at 9am then I'm going to sit there until,I'm seen.:o>:(
I've had seriously bad toothache for a week, seen dentist 3 times. On max painkillers and last night it got so bad I thought I needed to see an out of hours dentist. Rang 111 and explained the prob and was Told "this is probably not what you want to hear but there is no emergency dentist service in the whole of Norfolk. The earliest you can be seen anywhere is tomorrow." >:(. I think that's shocking considering we are one of the largest counties in the country.
What kind of service is that. Then to add insult to injury he said "please ring back if you need us ..... Don't feel you're on your own out there." But I am. They can offer me no help whatsoever so I'm in bed counting off the minutes until my local dentists opens at 9am then I'm going to sit there until,I'm seen.:o>:(
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"Don't feel you're on your own out there" is such a sweet thing to say!
Good luck at the Dentist.
I hope you get some help and relief today.
They have, or they did have, a dentist there for people not registered with a dentist and for emergencies.
Ah right, just googled it. It's the Siskin Centre on 01603 776834
Out of hours on 0845 6003246.
I've used them. Just called up and they told me to come down. Good luck Hotgossip. Dental pain is a bitch.
Thanks so much for that. I will be at my dentists waiting for them to open and if they can't help I'll ring them.
Funnily enough I expected them to point me in the direction, anywhere in this huge county, of an emergency dentist.
It says in the booklet .... You will be assessed, given advice and directed straightaway to the local service that can help you best. This could be an A & e, out of hours GP, etc etc EMERGENCY DENTIST.
But if there isn't an emergency dentist, that isn't the fault of NHS 111...
But if there isn't a local service available, what can they do?! They can't direct you to something that doesn't exist. It's really not their fault.
I feel for you though. Severe toothache is absolutely horrific - it sometimes feels like it will drive you mad! Hope you get it sorted very soon.
Exactly , how does the fact that Norfolk doesn't have a 24 hour dental service make 111 a joke??
I think when you have tooth ache, anything and everything is annoying
You are supposed to go A&E if you are in severe pain that isn't helped by painkillers. The answer machine at your local dentist should have included instructions on where to go to be seen out of hours. 111 should have also gave you this advice.
This is not entirely true (lots of factors need to be considered) when you ring 111 you are triaged and then told the appropriate course of action (yes mistakes can happen) but a & e is not an appropriate place if painkillers are not working. If deemed appropriate a GP would be a better person to see. As well as working for the 111 service I have a chronic pain condition, yes I have been sent to a & e because I'm in crisis and my medication is not working, but this was before I had a diagnosis, now I have a GP visit with the required drugs.
I'm afraid this page disagrees with you. It clearly says that if you are in severe dental pain not helped by painkillers out of hours you should go to A&E.
I am not going to argue with you, the OP was triaged and not deemed to be in severe pain - the NHS definition of severe pain is you cannot think clearly or are unable to continue with normal tasks eg: watching TV or going to the toilet. So after being triaged A & E would have been inappropriate. In the area I live in A & E would send (and have done) patients away with dental pain because they do not have the facilities to deal with dental. A GP would be more appropriate to help manage the pain until a dentist was open.
As it turned out, there was nothing wrong with him that the Dr could detect and he's been fine since, but it puzzled me that two call handlers took 40 minutes um-ing and and ah-ing over whether to give an 8 month old baby with a possible head injury an appt !
I'm not knocking the handlers themselves, they were presumably only following their training, and I genuinely think the 111 service is better than having no OOH service at all. I'd just be interested to know how 'the process' works and if you have any flexibility at all to go 'off script' and whether you're under pressure to avoid offering a face-to-face appt as much as possible?
All calls are triaged from questions on the screen, I do not have any medical training but have worked in the NHS for several years up until I has my children. The area I work in is run by the NHS, not all areas are so I can only answer for where I work. We cannot deviate from the script as such, but all cases are different we have trained nurses or paramedics and we can consult them if we have any concerns, which sounds like what happened with you. 40mins does seem to be a very ling time for triage they are normally complete within a few mins. We are trained to gather the information quickly in case we need to dispatch an ambulance to you - we will continue to ask questions but the crew will be on their way. We have the ability to book doctors appointents/call back and we do not try to avoid booking appointments. Our calls are randomly audited to make sure we are compliant if we're not we will be removed from the phones and either retrained or dismissed depending on the issue. We are accountable for all of our actions. I'm sorry that the experience you received wasn't great. Obviously it could have been a new member of staff. Also mistakes do happen. I'm glad your baby is okay.
No problem. It is very difficult to triage 'baby calls' and in the past when it was NHS direct I was given totally the wrong advice with regard to my, then, 7mth old daughter. Head injury calls can also be complex so when you add those two together it can be difficult. I think because I am a mother and I have been given really terrible advice myself, I am very cautious when it comes to babies and toddlers but in reality the nurses/paramedics/GP's would prefer that.
My point exactly. They just relayed the information. I had to call 111 with severe kidney stone pain recently and they were absolutely brilliant. Assessed me thoroughly and called the ambulance for me. Perhaps your post should have been about the lack of emergency dentists in your area?