In the last month I've had three instances of sickness and diarrhea with stomach pain lasting about 6-12 hours. Comes on overnight and leaves me rolling around on the floor in pain. Anyway, last night it happened again and I phoned NHS24 who got me an appt with OOH GP at hospital for 2am. Made it there with husband and baby in tow, GP gave me morphine and anti-emetic and sent me through to the Surgical Observation Unit next door. Blood test showed dodgy liver results so they brought me back in for an ultrasound (could have stayed in hosp to get it done in the morning but I opted to go home for some sleep). Back today at 3pm for u/s which diagnosed gallstones and inflamed gall bladder, saw surgeon about 20mins later in clinic who offered to remove it surgically - this Friday if I like! Total time from 1st call to NHS 24 to this point was about 14 hours!
Because I'll need childcare and so on, I've opted to wait a few weeks until my husband can get time off work, but I just wanted to share this amazing speedy service. (nb my previous experience of 18months waiting for hiatus hernia diagnosis was not as impressive )