"Emergency Dental treatment"

By 8pm on a recent Friday, my husband was suffering from excruciating toothache. Having taken as much medication as possible, with no relief, he was unable to open his mouth; such was the pain, so I phoned our dental practice, to obtain an emergency number. I dialled the "Sheffield" helpline no. and spoke to someone, who took all the relevant details from me and I was told that a clinician would call me back within an hour. Half an hour later, I was called and the lady took all the details, again. By this time it was just after half eight and by the time I had gone through everything again, another five minutes had passed. The lady was clearly working from a "script" and I felt she wasn’t listening to what I was saying, hence, asking ridiculous questions! At the end of the conversation, (now 8.45) she told me the emergency dentist closed at 7pm - what sort of Emergency dentist service is this?

Why wasn’t I told this when I first called at 8pm. Due to the severity of the pain, we drove to the Walk in centre in Rotherham (we live only minutes away although our postcode is a Sheffield one), only to find they had closed but the late night pharmacist there, gave us the number for the Dearne Valley dental hospital, which closed at 9.30pm. Although we were too late to get there before they closed, I called them and the lady who took the call was extremely helpful. We were told that although they shouldn’t deal with us, because of the situation we were in, she would book us an appointment for 1.30, as soon as they opened on Saturday. She also advised how we could help manage the pain until his appointment - what a difference in Customer Service!