I thought I'd share this experience. It's been traumatic, and I learnt quite
a lot.

I have a son, nearly 3, who developed a fever one night last week, about
10pm. He had a mildly red ear, nothing much. By 4am he clearly wasn't a well
boy, temp 39. By 7am I'm getting worried - he's been grunting, and is quiet.
He's never been significantly ill. He is never quiet.

I listen to his chest, and am convinced the two sides don't sound the same.
He's lying with his back arched, and complains when I touch him. But then
his temp is 40. I have a real blind spot evaluating the health of my own
family. So I say to my wife, lets call his GP to see what he thinks, but
we'll wait till 8am.

I ring our GP at 8.10am *really* worried, not thinking coherently, hoping to
get the surgery, but eventually end up talking to the on call GP. After my
first sentence, apologising for talking to him at home rather than at the
surgery, I get a pile of abuse about not waiting till 9am. I'm stunned. I
haven't even started to explain the situation. I have real trouble keeping
my voice from breaking as I explain that a) I'm a GP myself so I know what
I'm talking about b) I'm worried he has pneumonia c)I wasn't about to ask
for a visit but just trying to get him seen at the surgery before it starts.
(why am I apologising?) The voice the other end immediately changes.
Promises that the doctor doing surgery that morning will see him at 08.45,
and he'll speak to him to arrange it.

So my wife takes him to the surgery, rushes to get there for 8.45. No one
knows anything about it. At 9.05 the trainee is assigned to have a look.
Trainee claims that even though he has a fever of 40+ that all that is wrong
is a sore throat. Says his resps are 24, pulse 130 "which is normal". She
can't hear anything in the chest, etc. Tries to send him home. My wife
objects _stongly_. Gets the distinct impression she is being treated as a
tiresome mother. (apart from Imms, he has been seen there once in his life)
So seen another 10 minutes later by the senior partner, who at last treats
the pair of them like human beings, says clearly a very unwell boy, arranges
for him to be seen by paeds at local hospital. My wife in tears because all
of a sudden someone is nice to her.

At hospital, he has a WBC of 30,000 neutropils, the CXR shows a right upper
lobe pneumonia. They've had a lot of pneumococcal pneumonias this past
month. They admit him on IV penicillin, the consultant does a teaching
session on him as a 'textbook presentation'. The hospital are great.

He is now home, and rapidly improving.

Suddenly I start to evaluate General Practice the way the rest of the
population does. This wasn't some inner city lock up practice - this is a
respected, rural teaching practice. The best??

Is this really the way to treat people who call for urgent help?
What would have happened if we had not had special knowledge, or if we'd
been meek? Where has the human, caring, understanding approach gone? Do GP's
realise how difficult it is for a parent to present a clear case history
when they've been up all night, and are convinced that their precious child
is about to expire? Especially when the GP is being hostile.

I'm still *** angry. If you can't do your job properly, you should do
something else.

I know life is tough at the moment. Trouble is, I've heard lots of similar
stories recently, and I think the public sympathy for GP's is wearing very
thin.


Pete

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Peter Johnson
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(+44) 1525 261432



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