3 Hour Wait-No help For Me (nhsdirect.nhs.uk)

Member Name: Lucille

Product:	nhsdirect.nhs.uk
Date:	22/01/01 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: In my case-none

Disadvantages: Had to wait over 3 hours for any sort of advice

This probably won't be the best opinion I have ever written, but I'm so annoyed, I want to share it.

I have recently found out I am pregnant. I'm only eight weeks, so it's still very early. Today I started bleeding. Anyone who has ever had this happen to them during a pregnancy knows it is the one of most frightening thing that can happen. Although this is my second pregnancy, I didn't know what to do, as it never happened during my last one. I was shocked and scared. I didn't know whether to call my doctor, go the A&E department of my local hospital, or go to bed and hope for the best. Then I remember NHS Direct, and thought they could give me some advice as to what to do.

I rang the number, and it was answered quickly. The woman I spoke to explained that all the nurses were busy at the moment, so she would take my details, and someone would call me back. I asked how long that would be, and she said about an hour. I told her everything she needed, and I must admit she did say that if I felt I didn't want to wait for the call back I should go to the hospital. I asked her if she thought that was the right thing to do, and she said that she couldn't advise me one way or another.

I didn't find this to be of any help at all. I was still terribly worried, and didn't know what to do for the best. Then my husband remembered that quite close to our house there is a NHS walk-in centre, so we went there. I was seen by a nurse, given advice, and was out of there all in half an hour. I went home, not happy obviously, but at least knowing what to do if things got worse. Later in the afternoon I did receive my call back, but it was three and a half hour after my original call. The nurse I spoke to gave me exactly the same advice as I had already got.

I have read some other opinions about NHS Direct, and can see that they have helped a lot of people. I am just amazed that it took so long to get any help.
If I had waited for the call, I would have been worrying myself sick, which in my case would probably have been the worse thing to do. If it hadn't been for the walk-in centre, I would have gone to the A&E department at the local hospital. I thought was the one of the ideas of NHS Direct was to stop people going to hospital if they didn't really need to. Like many things in this world, there obviously aren't enough staff to cover this service, which is a real shame, as in theory it's a good idea.

As for me, the bleeding has stopped, and I am going to my GP tomorrow to have a proper check up. I think this experience has probably put me off of using NHS Direct again. If I have a medical situation again, I think I will go straight to either the walk-in centre or my local hospital

Summary: