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Poor advice on care for my child

Posted By Kurt

"Poor advice on care for my child"

About: New Victoria Hospital / Out-of-hours GP service NHS 24 / NHS 24 (111 service) Royal Hospital for Children (Glasgow) / Accident & Emergency

(as a parent/guardian),

We noticed our premature and very young baby had swollen feet in the morning on a Sunday. We phoned nhs24 (at 11:50) and waited 1.5 hours to speak to someone. That person advised us to go to the Victoria Hospital as they had made an appointment at the out of hours (appointment at 14:40). We asked if we should go to A&E as he was premature - they said no, as we would just be waiting for ages.

We went to the Victoria and waited a further 3 hours there. We were seen by a doctor who couldn't really advise us on anything as premature children wasn't their specialty. They advised us to go to the Queen Elizabeth children's A &E and gave us a letter. We arrived there at 18:30-18:45. 

My mother in law is an ex nurse and she - in the morning during the nhs24 call - advised us to go straight to a&e as we would need to be seen by a paediatrician. We thought we better take the advice from the NHS and follow their procedures. A nurse at the Victoria also said - when we asked why we had been kept here for so long when no one can actually deal with our son - that we should have went to a&e because the staff at the Victoria don't have the expertise.

This information should have been given to us at the very beginning.  It is now 20:00 and I'm writing this in the a&e. We have ran around on professional advice. We should have been advised to come straight to the the a&e. We are fatigued as our son is premature, my wife is breast feeding and his feeding schedule is now way out. 

I understand the NHS is understaffed but a better decision should have been made to help us as parents get to where our son could have received immediate care 8 hours previously. 

I would say this is unacceptable and there is a fault in the decision making process. Why send us to a hospital which could not deal with the issue. 

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Responses

Response from Raylene McLaggan, Clinical Service Manager, Out of Hours, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde about a year and a half ago
Raylene McLaggan
Clinical Service Manager, Out of Hours,
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde

Submitted on 16/11/2022 at 15:59
Published on Care Opinion at 15:59

Dear Kurt,

Thank you for getting in touch via Care Opinion.

I am sorry to read about your experience at the Victoria Hospital with GP Out of Hours Service.

The concerns you have raised we would like to look into this further and would welcome the opportunity to discuss these concerns with you.

Can you please contact myself on Raylene.McLaggan@ggc.scot.nhs.uk to discus.

Kind Regards,

Raylene

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Response from Shona Lawrence, Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care, NHS 24 about a year and a half ago
Shona Lawrence
Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care,
NHS 24

Submitted on 16/11/2022 at 16:41
Published on Care Opinion at 16:41

picture of Shona Lawrence

Dear Kurt

Thank you for sharing your experience on Care Opinion. I do hope your son is doing well. This sounds like an extremely worrying time for you, and for your wife. I can absolutely sense your frustration in what you have shared, and I am sorry to learn of your experience.

Here at NHS 24, we want to better understand the service we provided to your son. Therefore, if you would be kind enough to contact me with some additional detail, I would arrange for the call to 111 to be reviewed.

I do offer a full apology for your wait time to access NHS 24. I'm sure this added to an already worrying time and I am sorry for this. There are times unfortunately, when the demand for our service is such that callers do need to wait longer than we would like to get through. We absolutely appreciate that having an extended wait is not a good experience and are working hard in this regard.

I see Raylene from NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde has already responded to you and offered for you to get in touch.

I also hope to hear from you further. You can call me on 07814 299944 or by email at Patient.Experience@nhs24.scot.nhs.uk

Thanks again for taking the time to get in touch and best wishes to you all.

Regards

Shona

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Response from Shona Lawrence, Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care, NHS 24 about a year and a half ago
Shona Lawrence
Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care,
NHS 24

Submitted on 16/11/2022 at 18:37
Published on Care Opinion at 18:37

picture of Shona Lawrence

Hi Kurt

Thanks so much for getting in touch so quickly. It was a pleasure to speak with you and I'm so pleased your baby son is now doing well. What a fantastic name you have given him!

Thank you so much for being so understanding about the wait time to get through to us.

With the additional detail I now have, I will request a review of the contact with NHS 24. This will help us to understand what actions were taken by us. We will contact you further when our review is complete.

With best wishes to you all.

Kind regards

Shona

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Response from Shona Lawrence, Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care, NHS 24 about a year and a half ago
Shona Lawrence
Clinical Governance Lead, Nursing and Care,
NHS 24

Submitted on 22/11/2022 at 10:13
Published on Care Opinion at 10:13

picture of Shona Lawrence

Hi Kurt

I hope your son continues to do well.

I understand our review into the care provided to your son has been completed and one of our senior staff members called you to discuss this yesterday evening. I hope you found that discussion helpful. I hope you are reassured that that our care to your son was appropriate.

Thanks again for sharing your experience on Care Opinion and best wishes to you all.

Kind regards

Shona

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