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

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

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