Doctor in the House?

Day 282

28 February 2010

My daughter has tonsilitis. She's had it for the past five days. Yesterday her tonsils resembled two large strawberries. Last night she couldn't swallow, and this morning she couldn't even drink a sip of water without feeling pain in her throat, and her tonsils were looking worse than ever.

Swanage has a small cottage hospital. Today there were no doctors on duty for the town (a town with a population of over 10,000). When I spoke to the out of hours service, they were expecting me to somehow get to Poole hospital, 20 miles away. I don't have a car, today, and so they told me to get the bus (an hour and 50 minute journey with a poorly child and a baby, on my own, with another 10 minute walk in the rain once we got to Poole). Alternatively, they suggested that someone else lend me their car, let alone find two suitable car seats to use. The caller didn't seem to appreciate that Swanage is a rural area. I felt like I was being somehow difficult and annoying, and the person on the phone eventually, reluctantly agreed to send a doctor to see my daughter, although he clearly was not happy to be doing this.

When the doctor visited, he was fine about coming out to see us, and didn't see it as an issue. Great! And it was a justified visit, because she needed more than a bit of calpol to treat her.

I don't understand why there should be an issue with doctors coming to see a patient in a rural area, especially if there are difficulties visiting a clinic. Would the caller I spoke to have made such a fuss if the patient was incapacitated at home? I doubt it. I do know that there are people who expect, or demand, home visits by GP's when they are more than capable of getting out of the house, but when a call is coming from an area where there isn't even GP cover for a moderately-sized population, shouldn't there be a little give and take?

Swanage really needs a walk-in-centre, at the very least, to solve these problems. Anyone?!