"Late appointment"

I arrived into a very busy waiting room for a paediatrics outpatient appointment with my daughter. My daughter was greeted by the nurse and had her height and weight checked, then had to sit in the waiting room to be called by the doctor.

We had a very long wait, with many children coming and going. I assumed the clinic must've been running behind but after an hour and a half it became apparent that my daughter had been overlooked. 

I hadn't wanted to make a fuss, as staff seemed under pressure. I then spoke to a nurse, who confirmed my daughter had been missed. She didn't know how it'd happened, but she asked the doctor to see my daughter next.

By this stage my daughter was very hungry and thirsty, frustrated and anxious. She has coeliacs disease, and I unfortunately didn't have any gluten free snacks with me. I hadn't anticipated being kept waiting for so long.

When my daughter was finally seen the doctor didn't apologise for the wait, it genuinely seemed like he wasn't even aware what had happened. After taking her bloods my daughter then had quite a significant faint requiring admission to the paediatric ward for observation. And thankfully she was able to have some dinner there.

I genuinely believe that her faint was a direct result of her appointment being missed and being kept waiting for so long. It's important that staff know that there are consequences for keeping patients waiting too long and there should be better systems in place for ensuring patients are seen in the correct order and that no-one is missed.

I genuinely don't even think the staff connected the dots of why my daughter was so poorly after getting her bloods taken, and I don't think anything has been done to prevent it happening again to another child.

An acknowledgement and an apology would've been nice. My daughter is now very apprehensive about having her bloods taken. It was a very traumatic experience for a child which could've been very easily avoided with correct management of appointments.