AMY Pittman called eight different doctor's surgeries after her toddler's left foot blew up like a balloon - but the only practice that could help was a 45-minute drive away in Bateau Bay.
The Cooranbong mother-of-two said she had already spent five hours with her 17-month-old son in the John Hunter Hospital emergency department the day before, where they were sent home with an information sheet about hand, foot and mouth disease. But the former early learning centre director is glad she followed her instinct to get a second opinion - even if it did take "a good few hours" to find an appointment with a GP.
"I just had the sense that it wasn't hand, foot and mouth," she said. "I have worked with kids too, so I'm familiar with it and it really didn't look anything like it."
After first noticing her son wasn't putting weight on his left foot when he walked, Ms Pittman attempted to get an appointment at her usual general practice. When they were unable to accommodate him, it was Health Direct that advised her to get his swelling foot checked at a hospital.
After their John Hunter Hospital experience, Ms Pittman felt she was back at square one, and began calling all of the general practices in the area between Cooranbong and Swansea first thing the next morning.
"Some told me they only had one doctor working in their clinics that day, and the first one I could get into was a GP 45 minutes away at Bateau Bay," she said.
That GP confirmed her son did not have hand, foot and mouth disease, but rather an early stage cellulitis infection.
"The GP looked at it straight away and knew it wasn't that," she said.
"Had I not had that mum's instinct that what the hospital told me wasn't right, it could have ended up very differently. Cellulitis is a bacterial infection that can be really serious if it's left untreated."
The experience has prompted Ms Pittman to call for the chronic lack of GPs in the area to be addressed.
"The fact you can't get in to see a GP is putting pressure on the hospital system as well, and things are getting missed," she said. "We are the sort of family that only goes and gets medical assistance if we absolutely need it, and not being able to get a 17-month-old in when he needs it is really scary. It's really concerning."
Ms Pittman said their area was growing rapidly with various developments under construction, and new estates and retirement homes on the way.
"The more people who come here the worse it's going to get," she said.
Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper said while the area had recently been reclassified as a Distribution Priority Area (DPA) - which can help practices recruit and retain overseas-trained GPs - people were still waiting four weeks or more to see a doctor.
"There is still a lag in being able to recruit GPs, and there is a lot of competition for them," Mr Piper said. "The loss of DPA status a few years ago meant that GPs were attracted to other metro areas, and we just haven't been able to get them."
He said there had been a "significant" amount of growth in the area, with retirees, as well as a lot of young families, both driving demand for doctors.
"It's going to be one of the major problems for the area," he said. "When it comes down to medical services, particularly if you are ill, you don't want to be travelling significant distances."
He said even accessing Wyong or John Hunter Hospitals wasn't easy from the greater Morisset area.
"As the crow flies, it mightn't seem far, but as the road drives, it certainly is - particularly for our ageing population and young families," he said.
