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Care Opinion

Avoidable trip to Bolton A&E

Posted By Cynical

"Avoidable trip to Bolton A&E"

About: Royal Bolton Hospital / Accident and emergency Royal Bolton Hospital / Paediatrics

(as the patient),

My baby (10 months old) had recently been discharged from Bolton Hospital with bronchiolitis. A couple of nights later, he experienced breathing difficulties and I had to call the out-of-hours GP to my home.

The GP turned up but because he did not have a paediatric oximeter, he had to organise for a blue light ambulance to take my son to A&E. When we arrived at Bolton A&E (approx midnight) the paediatric A&E was closed and as the unit was busy, we had to wait with the other ambulance patients in a drafty corridor - at that time there was one drunk man who had obviously been in a fight, and another old man with a bad nose bleed.

The waiting experience for myself with a 10 month old baby was not pleasant (especially when the drunken man kept wanting to look at the baby).

My concerns and suggestions:

- Why does the paediatric department close at night?

- Why couldn't the out-of-hours doctor carry a paediatric oximeter - thus avoiding us having to go to A&E and the cost of a journey in a blue-light ambulance?

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Responses

Response from Bolton NHS Foundation Trust 15 years ago
Bolton NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 22/01/2009 at 09:47
Published on Care Opinion at 00:00

We're so sorry that you had such an unpleasant experience, especially at a time when you were already worried about your baby. We have been assured that as a result of what happened, paediatric oximeters have been ordered to be carried in all visiting GPs' bags and also to be available for use in the GP out of hours service based at Waters Meeting Health Centre. Ideally GPs should refer babies in such cases directly to our children's assessment ward which avoids the need to go through A and E at all. A reminder has been sent to all GPs working in the out of hours service about the arrangements for direct referrals. Having said that, we do apologise that the Children's A and E is currently closed after 11p.m. This is due to staffing difficulties.

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