"Lack of information"

I attended the QUEH sick kids with my daughter last night to get my daughter seen as I was concerned with her temperature aswell as cold hands and feet. I was instructed by NHS 24 to attend the hospital to get her assessed.

We were at the hospital for roughly 3.5 hours during that time none of the nurses/Drs spoke to anyone in the minors area advising of timescales to help set expectations especially given the time of night. My daughter was administered iburfen then checked on an hour and half later with a nurse taking her temperature and undertaking her observations. I was not advised of what the observations and continued to sit there with no update.

My daughter’s temperature eventually gave down after 4.5 hours. Given the length of time I was waiting and the reduction in temperature I decided to take my daughter home as she was becoming distressed and overtired. I spoke to one of the nurses on shift to advise I was leaving. They said they would speak to some other members of staff to confirm when the Drs/consultants would be back round however they did not return. Instead another nurse came over to me to ask if I was sure I wanted to leave. I explained given my daughters temp had come down I was happy to take her home and get her assessed by a GP in the morning.

Around 15.15pm today a consult from the QUEH called to confirm if I had my daughter checked over. She made a comment about my daughter’s observations not showing as they should. If I had known that last night I would have absolutely stayed at the hospital however this was never disclosed to me.

The GP confirmed to me today that she has a chest infection and is now on a 5 day course of antibiotics.

My parting comments are I appreciate the staff and their commitment to looking after our children it does not go unnoticed. However, as a worried parent it would be welcoming if staff could provide timely updates to parents to give them an indication of timescales to keep them informed. As it is daunting for parents to sit there for hours on end with no updates.