The frustrating thing was that, once we got in to see the doctor, we were only there for about a minute because my son clearly had conjunctivitis and needed a prescription. That's all and I had already figured it out for myself before we even walked in to the centre.
The whole thing was an exercise in frustration.
Why would you only have one doctor working on a Thursday night?
Why isn't there some kind of fast-track queue for small kids? If I had been waiting for myself I definitely wouldn't have minded if, at 9pm, a 3-year-old went in before me.
I don't condone handing prescriptions out willy nilly but did we really need to see a doctor? Couldn't a chemist have identified the muck coming out of his eyes? Or perhaps the medical centre nurse?It just all seemed totally ridiculous and like a massive waste of everyone's time.
The whole experience made me so grateful that we are in a socio-economic position that means we usually see our lovely local doctor who knows us and the kids know him.
And it also made me think that no wonder the medical system and hospitals in particular are in crisis if a two and a half hour wait for a 30 second consultation is the access point for the general public!
Especially because our last out-of-hours attempt to see a doctor was with the home visit service that our local doctor refers you to at night ... there was a six hour wait for that one and we ended up taking Wild Man to hospital.
OH NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Various people, having read this post, have just emailed me and told me you can now get kids conjunctivitis drops over the counter. *sob* All that sitting there for nothing : (
Have you had bad experiences trying to find a doctor for your kids after hours?
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