"A quick and thorough A&E visit!"

My daughter attended A&E in RHCYP on Wednesday where she had a throat swab taken. I called the department yesterday for results and the phone was answered by one of the doctors, Paul.  He explained he couldn’t find her results but would phone me back after he looked further. Paul phoned me back 15 minutes later to apologise that he couldn’t find my daughters results but asked how she was feeling now. I explained that she hadn’t improved but that she had not deteriorated. He asked if I’d be happy to bring her back to the department as he would rather she be checked over to see whether or not antibiotics would be needed to help her and I agreed so got ready to take her through.

When we arrived we checked in at reception and were triaged within 10 minutes by two lovely nurses who chatted away to my daughter to make her feel at ease and then took us through to a cubicle. Within 20 minutes of being in the cubicle, Donna, the nurse practitioner came to examine my daughter. She asked for a background of what had been going on and listened into her chest. Donna then explained what she found and recommended we try an inhaler to see if it improves my daughters chest and that once it had been given Donna would come back to check if it had helped.

Beth, one of the nurses then came to give the inhaler and, again, she was so lovely to my daughter who wasn’t impressed with the spacer! Donna then came back and informed me that the inhaler had really helped to clear up my daughters chest so recommended we go home with an inhaler and antibiotics. We have been in and out of St Johns A&E for the same reasons since my daughter was 9 weeks old and she is now 2. This is the first we have attended RHCYP and the team were prompt and thorough and explained everything I needed to know in detail and continuously put my mind at ease. I’m aware that services are extremely stretched right now but it never once impacted the care we received. We were in and out of A&E within 2 hours, including waiting on medication. Thank you to everyone for outstanding care.