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Because of this my daughter will think hospitals are bad

Posted By leannebx23

"Because of this my daughter will think hospitals are bad"

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

(as a parent/guardian),

Well myself and my daughter had a plan with a staff member from the autism team, who is amazing and I gave permission for me to hold onto my daughter while blood was taken and for her to sit up.

My daughter was very happy with this until we got to the blood test. The staff who were taking the blood refused to follow the plan even though the autism team had emailed them. They were rude and determined that I wasn't allowed to cuddle her or for her sit up. She was screaming trying to run out of the ward.

They were informed that you can't speak to her directly, but they did it anyway which caused her to freak out. She was punching and kicking. To the point myself and members of staff had to hold her down. She is now tramatised cause of this. Even when the needle came out her arm. Blood was everywhere! She now even hates hearing me talking about what happened. The staff should have done what the email from the team said.

Because of this my daughter will think hospitals are bad and will feel negative. The whole point of the autism team is to help children and the family's so the children are calm and happy and have knowledge of what's being done. They kindly called me the next day to see how we were. Even then they could hear her screaming in the back ground, mummy, stop talking about it. This could of all been avoided if the hospital staff listened to the autism team and to myself. 

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Responses

Response from Nicola Davison, Clinical Nurse Manager, Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, NHS Lothian 7 months ago
Nicola Davison
Clinical Nurse Manager, Royal Hospital for Children and Young People,
NHS Lothian

Submitted on 03/10/2023 at 17:52
Published on Care Opinion on 04/10/2023 at 09:30

Dear Leannebx23,

First of all I would like to apologise sincerely for the experience your daughter and you had on her recent visit to RHCYP. This was obviously a distressing experience for you both, particularly for your daughter, not only at the time but the affect that this has continued to have on her since her visit.

I would like to reassure you that this will be looked into thoroughly and I will be speaking with all the teams that were involved to see how we can improve this not only for your daughter in any future appointments, but for any other child who may require a similar procedure.

I would really like to thank you for providing this feedback, and reassure you that I will provide a more detailed response tomorrow.

Many thanks

Nicola

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Response from Nicola Davison, Clinical Nurse Manager, Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, NHS Lothian 7 months ago
Nicola Davison
Clinical Nurse Manager, Royal Hospital for Children and Young People,
NHS Lothian

Submitted on 04/10/2023 at 16:19
Published on Care Opinion at 16:42

Dear Leannebx23,

I am writing with a further update following on from my response yesterday.

I would again like to reiterate my sincere apologies for your daughters upsetting experience when visiting the hospital for blood samples.

I have now had time to speak to the different areas involved and would like to share that information with you with the plans for improvement to ensure the points you have raised are addressed.

The play specialist who you met in preparation for the blood test procedure had made a detailed plan for your daughter but unfortunately she was not able to be present on the day of your daughters appointment. An email was sent to the senior charge for the area with the plan but the charge nurse was off so this was not picked up by anyone until after the procedure had taken place. This has highlighted that we need a much more robust process for communicating vital information between teams. I have spoken to both teams and they are now looking at how they communicate to ensure that information is clearly shared with more than one person.

I have also discussed with the charge nurse about their 'normal' process and planning for children who may struggle with procedures and how the play specialist team are key in the preparation as well as support during a procedure. Therefore, if we are made aware that the play specialist will not be available then we will look at having a different play specialist to be present or offer an alternative appointment date when they could be supported.

I am also very sorry that you felt the staff involved in this experience with your daughter were rude to you. This is absolutely not the behavior that I would expect from any staff, and not at all in line with NHS Lothian values. I have spoken to the senior charge nurse who is going to address this with her team and remind them of our values and the importance of listening and including parents. Having a family centred approach and involving parents should be what we are looking to achieve for all patients in the hospital, and I can only apologise that you felt this was not the experience you and your daughter received.

I hope that this provides you with some reassurance that the issues you have raised have been addressed and plans are now in place to improve the experience for other children in a similar situation.

I would be very happy to be contacted directly if you would like to discuss any of this in more detail, and to discuss it over the phone, if that would be helpful.

Many thanks

Nicola

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