A MUM whose 10-month-old son had an agonising skin condition had to wait more than a day until it was diagnosed by doctors.

Claire Harris, from Parkstone, became concerned when her son Adam Keller developed a rash all over his body last week.

She rang the Rosemary Medical Centre in Parkstone and was told that a doctor would call her back later.

Miss Harris said: "I was worried because the rash was growing. The surgery phoned back at lunchtime and asked me if I had done the glass test for meningitis, which I had. Then they asked me if I could bring him in at 4pm."

She later saw Dr John Lovejoy. "He said it was some type of allergy and gave him antihistamine and said it would help him sleep but instead he was awake all night screaming. On Friday morning he was even worse," she said.

"I phoned my aunt for advice because his skin was burning from the outside in and contacted the surgery in the morning saying I wanted to bring him in because he was coming up in blisters, but on the third time of asking I was told I would have to wait until 4.30pm to speak to a doctor.

"The surgery closed soon after that and I couldn't take the risk of him not being seen so I ended up just taking him in at about 4pm.

"He was diagnosed by a second doctor, Dr Pugh, with streptococci scolded skin. After he was seen he was taken to Poole Hospital where he spent four nights."

She added: "I am not pointing the finger at any of the doctors, but it cannot be right that a baby has to wait so long to be seen. It could have been something much worse."

Dr Colin Pugh said: "Our service has been perfectly correct. All we can do is get through them as quickly and accurately as we can."

West Moors GP Tom McKinstry, local representative for the British Medical Association, believes the fault lies with the NHS's new triage system of diagnosing patients over the phone.

He added: "It is unusual for a rash to come on so quickly because it usually takes days but if it had been me I would have tried to see the child in case he had measles or chicken pox, which can be very nasty."

First published: October 5