Extremely frustrating and no help at all.
Some time ago I found it necessary to get some urgent medical treatment for my husband. Rang about 6.30 a.m and explained my husband's condition and details were taken. After this the receptionist said she would need to pass the details to the nurse who would ring me back. After about 20 - 25 minutes the nurse rang back. I had to explain all my husband's symptoms again to her and then she wanted to speak directly to my husband who was too ill to explain himself anyway. All this took nearly 10 minutes only for the nurse to say she would have to get the doctor to ring me back. Once again, about 20 minutes later the doctor rang, I had to go all through the symptoms again only for him to advise me to take my husband to the A&E Department at the hospital! By this time it was 8 am and we made a decision that if my husband did not get any worse, we would wait until our GP surgery opened at 8.30. He was seen and treatment prescribed quite quickly. If we had a medical emergency again and our surgery was not open, it would be better to go straight to the hospital or even ring 999