YP Letters: No option but A&E after long wait in agony

I AM writing to provide your readers with details of my daughter’s experience of healthcare in Leeds. She had an extreme pain in her jaw and mouth. It was badly swollen. I tried various dental practices, including one in Headingley/Cookridge. I was initially offered a 3.30pm appointment. Then it was changed to 2.30pm, which my daughter could not make.

No alternative was offered despite the fact that she was in extreme pain. We tried her doctor’s who made an appointment for 5.30pm. Two hours later they rang to say they could not deal with problems “in mouth”.

I rang NHS 111, and despite the emergency, was offered a 15 hours later appointment. The last resort was A&E.

This is where the Government tell us not to go unless there is no other option. When everyone else point blank refuses to help, what option is there? So to A&E, Leeds. 5.30pm kick off. X-ray taken. Problems diagnosed. Seven, yes seven, doses of numbing injection given with extreme pain. Then the nurse disappeared for an hour, by which time the anaesthetic had worn off!

Goodness what a country we live in. Like the dark ages when no one of the “caring professions” make any remote effort to help someone in extreme pain.