Reassurance at the end of the phone (nhsdirect.nhs.uk)

Member Name: Biffa

Product:	nhsdirect.nhs.uk
Date:	13/02/01 (25 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good advice, there when you need them

Disadvantages: None that I can think of

Being a parent is scary enough at the best of times, but when your 8 month old baby is obviously not very well at all, it's even worse. They can't tell you what the problem is or where it hurts, so a lot of the home-diagnosis is down to guess work.

We have two daughters, the eldest will be 2 in March and the youngest is 8 months old. Alanis, the 8 month old, is teething at the moment which is probably why she is so off colour. It's easy to see when a normally happy smiley baby is off colour, but when they start being sick, have a temperature, rash and very cold hands and feet it's inevitable that panic will set in.

I've used NHS Direct in the past when our eldest daughter was also unwell as a young baby, and found the advice that they gave me was very reassuring. At the time we didn't live within walking distance of the doctors, so being able to phone up and get advice before making a mad dash was really helpful.

The most impressive thing I've found is that they store all your details, so that the next time you ring up, you can go straight into telling them the problem. The first time I rang about Yjana (our eldest), I had to give all sorts of information such as date of birth obviously, was it a straightforward pregnancy, was it a difficult labour, was she a low birth-weight etc. I had to do the same with Alanis, but now they have all the information they need.

Of course, there's no substitue for going to see a real-life doctor, but they do reassure you and give you advice on what to do. In our case I was told to keep baby cool, give her some calpol, leave her in just a nappy and check her temperature every hour to see if the calpol was having an effect.

If the person who answers the phone doesn't feel that they are suitably qualified to give you full advice over the phone, they will get someone to call you back. Whenever I've had to have a call back it's usually been w
ithin half an hour, but it obviously varies depending on what time of day you're ringing them.

I've always found them helpful and polite, and it's good to know that there's professional reassurance at the end of the phone to balance with the whitterings of the mother/mother-in-law, and they're a lot more helpful than the battleaxe at the local surgery!

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