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I feel annoyed I didn't complain at the time

Posted By Premmie mum

"I feel annoyed I didn't complain at the time"

About: Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (Edinburgh) / Paediatrics

(as a parent/guardian),

My daughter was admitted to ward 6 with bronchiolitis. She has chronic lung disease after being born at 25 weeks. I found the experience upsetting as the staff didn't appear to care about the children. The ward routine and completion of tasks appeared to be more important. When I was there the ward was dirty, Monitors red alarmed and no one came, one night I had to look for staff 5 times for a baby who's mum couldn't stay overnight. It felt unsafe.

The nursing staff frequently wanted to use nasal suction although medical staff had listened to her chest and stated that there was no secretions. Suction didn't yield any secretion apart blood from the trauma and did not improve her oxygen saturation.

The nursing staff treating my daughter frequently informed me that she would feel much better after suction. I lost confidence in their assessment and treatment skills. Several staff didn't know that she had chronic lung disease, I'm not sure why it wasn't handed over.

Another unaccompanied toddler cried so long that he vomited- staff had ignored him for 90 minutes. The mum next to us who had been up all night with her newborn was grabbed by the foot one morning and shaken vigorously when she didn't wake up to the lights going on- she had a c-section only 2 weeks previously. She was too polite to complain.

They talked about us and other family rather than to us. I heard them say that this bay needs shifted- they have been in too long. We were discharged a few hours later even though I don't think our daughter didn't meet the criteria. Questions were met by sarcasm, which went along the lines of - so you don't want to take her home now!  We were instructed to sign a form regarding her discharge even though we didn't agree with or understand the content.

We have frequently used paediatric services and previously had been very happy with our care. Our experience in ward 6 has continued to upset me over many months and I feel annoyed at myself that I didn't complain at the time. I was concerned that my daughter would get RSV again and we would have to be readmitted.

I understand the ward is busy but I felt whilst we there there, there was an unsafe culture and lack of compassion. Worryingly my concerns mainly were related to the senior staff nurses. Some of the younger staff nurses were pleasant but many of them stated that they were either starting new with jobs soon or looking for something different.

What could be improved?

-Availability of milk/ bottles/ choice of food

-Cleanliness of the ward

-Greater kindness showed to the children

-Improved communication between nurses and doctors

-Improved environment- dimmer lights to help sleep

-Improved handover between shifts

-Insight into stress experienced by in patient stay

-Opportunity to discuss child's condition&discharge

-Partnership and communication with parents

-Respect/ dignity for parents

What's good?

-Some nurses were helpful, but they were a minority

-The medical staff were pleasant and approachable

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Responses

Response from Jeannette Morrison, Head of Patient Experience, NHS Lothian 7 years ago
Jeannette Morrison
Head of Patient Experience,
NHS Lothian

Submitted on 27/10/2016 at 12:51
Published on Care Opinion at 13:13

Dear Premmie mum

At the outset, please can l say how sorry l am to read what happened when your daughter was admitted to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at what must have been an anxious time for you and your family.

I have spoken to the Associate Nurse Director and she has shared your feedback with the senior staff about the number of difficulties that you experienced. She has also shared with me some of the recent improvements that have been taking place in the hospital which l wanted to share with you.

The hospital is an old building and we know the environment is not perfect and the conditions for parents staying is not always as we would like but this is being addressed in the new hospital with improved bed side sleeping arrangements for parents and also a parent hotel, but I appreciate that this was not your experience.

The hospital have been working hard with their SICPs (Standard Infection Control Precaution) and audits are carried out approximately six weekly by the Infection Control Nurse and these have seen an improving picture since their introduction in March 16 following an inspection by Healthcare Improvement Scotland.

The food comes from the Astley Ainslie for patients and we have had several complaints regarding this. The canteen is only open for certain periods of time, however outwith their opening hours there are only vending machines available which is not as we would like. We continue to work with our facilities colleagues with these issues. A variety of milk is available for babies as we have a milk kitchen and this includes special dietary milk.

More recently, one of the wards is piloting a patient experience questionnaire. Mostly of the feedback about the care is very good, however, we are seeing an early theme about the food. We hope that this questionnaire will allow us to identify any issues early so that the clinical staff are able to resolve these at the time.

Once gain, please can l say how sorry I was to read your feedback and if you would like us to look into these issues further, please can you contact the Patient Experience Team:

Email: feedback@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk

Telephone: 0131 536 3370

Post 2 - 4 Waterloo Place, Edinburgh, EH 1 3EG

Kind regards

Jeannette

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