"Made a horrific time so much worse for no real reason"

Dear Gwen

Firstly can I take this opportunity to apologise for the experience that you had when you arrived in the hospital after you had heard the news that your daughter had been admitted to Intensive Care. That must have been awful for you.

Due to the location of our current ICU there is no way of granting access to the unit unless a member of staff comes to get you as all our doors are either swipe entry or locked. Usually what happens when someone gets admitted to ICU is, if its out of hours the relatives would come to the A&E reception and they would call us and we would come and get them or if it's within daylight hours we would advise relatives to come round to the back of the hospital and we can grant access through the day surgery doors. We have a phone number to call on that door to grant entry if its locked. As you came up in a hurry I'm assuming you came in through the main entrance? I have now put a laminate up at the main entrance stating that if you wish to visit ICU to phone this number and we will come and get you. I appreciate this is not helpful hearing this now but my hope is it will avoid this happening to anyone in the same situation as you in the future. Again I can only apologise for your experience.

On admission we try and let patient's families in as quick as possible but if we are working with the patient this is not always possible. I'm so sorry that you were told to go straight to the relatives room and if it made you panic. I'm sure the nursing staff were just trying to put you somewhere comfortable to wait until we could let you in to see your daughter. Mornings in ICU can be incredibly busy and I can only assume that is why you weren't let in immediately but I'm glad you didn't have to wait long and got to sit with your girl.

In relation to your thoughts around that phone call you mentioned, patient's ventilation can change frequently and this isn't uncommon. I have no doubt that she would have been well looked after all night and if there had been any concerns around her condition I'm sure you would have been contacted. We appreciate that patient's families need rest and we wouldn't disturb you in the middle of the night if we didn't feel it was required.

I'm so glad that the care she received after those initial difficult times was in your words "amazing". I'm incredibly proud of our team and all they do on a daily basis.

With regards to the care she received after she left ICU I'm unable to comment on but can only apologise that you felt that way.