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"Left feeling dismissed and shamed"

About: Royal Hospital for Children (Glasgow) / Accident & Emergency

(as a parent/guardian),

I recently attended children's A&E with my 3 month old daughter after being sent from my GP. We had also been in the week prior to this and received excellent care from every single person. 

On this occasion, all of the nursing staff were absolutely fantastic and couldn't do enough for us, providing excellent care and help while I was there on my own with the baby. 

My experience changed when a staff member came to see us, and I was left extremely upset when we left. They were very dismissive of my child's symptoms, questioning how I came to the conclusion that they had a fever, as they did not have a fever when at the hospital, as if I was making it up. 

There were several comments made about my child's size, saying they are huge for 3 months, and that my child really is big for their age, and more comments made when asked what my child's weight was. They then went on to ask about feeds, then very bluntly told me that I'm massively over feeding my baby and that I need to stop immediately. I told them my health visitor was happy with the progress, and that I have absolutely no concerns about their size, but they said that's wrong and that I will cause so many health issues in the future. The staff member calculated from my child's weight what I need to be feeding them, and that they won't like it but it needs to be done. The discussion was very brief, but very harshly delivered, and completely unrelated to the issue we were in for. We were then discharged, and I left feeling completely dismissed and shamed at how I am caring for my baby, which I felt was completely inappropriate in this acute setting where they have only a small detail of my babies history. 

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Responses

Response from Lorna Aitken, Lead Nurse, Royal Hospital for Children, NHSGGC last month
Lorna Aitken
Lead Nurse, Royal Hospital for Children,
NHSGGC
Submitted on 07/05/2025 at 14:02
Published on Care Opinion at 15:58


Firstly, I am sorry to hear your daughter has been unwell and you had to attend our emergency department with her after advice from your GP. I apologise that your experience within the department on this day left you feeling dismissed.

I would like to investigate this further for you and would welcome you to contact me directly via my email lorna.aitken3@nhs.scot.

Thank you,

Lorna Aitken

Acting Leading Nurse Emergency Department

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