Does your MTF have an after hours nurse line?

Mereou12

Our base recently "discontinued" their after hours nurse line....Our local hospital has an awesome pediatric nurse line, but it irks me to no end that I can't call and talk to MY CHILD'S doctor or nurse. The hospital's nurses are great, but they don't have his full medical history on file.

Is this something that has happened at all MTFs, or just ours? We're in the process of switching DS to Standard anyway, because I'm so fed up with dealing with our pathetic peds clinic. But in the meantime, we're still stuck on base.

 

CeeMat

Not only does ours not have an after hours line but you cannot speak to a nurse during duty hours either. Your options are to wait 24-48 hours for a phone consult or to go to the UCC.

Mereou12

CeeMat:

Not only does ours not have an after hours line but you cannot speak to a nurse during duty hours either. Your options are to wait 24-48 hours for a phone consult or to go to the UCC.

WTF?

Seriously, what is wrong with our MTFs? For the longest time, I always swore that I'd never complain about free healthcare. But this is messed up. At least we have the option of speaking with a nurse during duty hours. I'd have switched to Standard long ago (we're in the process right now) if that were the case for us.

GreenFlamingo7

CeeMat:

Not only does ours not have an after hours line but you cannot speak to a nurse during duty hours either. Your options are to wait 24-48 hours for a phone consult or to go to the UCC.

This makes no sense. Even if there is not a designated "Nurse Advice Line", you can always call your assigned clinic direct and ask to speak to one of the RNs.

CeeMat

When DD had her first fever (ended up being hand, foot and mouth) last spring, I called during duty hours to try to find out at what point I needed to bring her in to the UCC and was told that I couldn't talk to anyone. Either I needed to put in for a phone consult and get a call back 24-48 hours (this was around 3pm on a Friday) or to bring her in the UCC. There was no way to talk to a nurse. I found out through my local mom's group that the civilian hospital had a 24 hour nurse line and called there.

The hospital here is ridiculously overloaded and the care that you get (if you can ever get an appointment) directly suffers. I have fought the fight to get myself an off-base PCM but haven't had enough justification to get DD off yet. I also just got referred back to base for maternity care and I'm hoping that the clinic isn't as bad as the rest of the hospital.

anfsweetie1703

I am an AD Nurse working in a larger MTF.  There is not going to be a nurse after hours line, we are lucky we have enough Nurses to staff the hospital 24/7 as it is.  You can complain all you want but the care you are getting, if it is AF, is about as good as it can get anywhere.  Civilian hospitals are are a lot worse that what we have, you have no idea.  All the Nurses and Doctors I work with are some of the smartest, most caring and compassionate people you will ever meet.  The majority of us are also extremely skilled at the jobs we do.  If there is a real problem then you can always call the ER anytime.  I work in the ER and we get calls like that all the time.  Also, my hospital just recently implemented a peds clinic in the ER since there are such long waits to get into the peds clinic sometimes.  For 3 hours a peds Nurse and Doctor come down and see all the kids that are in the ER for acute problems.  It has worked out great!  Now people who really need to get into the peds clinic can because the ER peds clinic takes a huge burden off the regular clinic.  I am sorry you are not happy with your medical treatment, but you need to remember that there is a lot more going on behind the scenes than you realize.  I can assure you we work harder than any civilian office/hospital...

anfsweetie1703

Oh and one other thing, saying that you want to speak to your child's nurse/doctor whenever you call is a bit ridiculous.  We cannot be on call 24/7, we have families of our own too...

SoftSpot

anfsweetie1703:

Oh and one other thing, saying that you want to speak to your child's nurse/doctor whenever you call is a bit ridiculous.  We cannot be on call 24/7, we have families of our own too...

I have to agree with this. You can't expect your child's doctor to be available to take a call all day every day.

anfsweetie1703

Thanks!  We do what we can but it is just never enough for some people...

rezelle

Ours still has an after hours nurse hotline. I've actually had really good experiences with the pediatricians on base, but maybe I'm the exception?