"Expertise and professionalism shown"

My son has a learning disability and lives with me. He is taking 3 different medications for high B/P which requires him having annual blood tests. He has always had difficult veins to access blood and this has got progressively worse over years. In 2024 the nurses at the local Health Centre were unable to get it. He had visits to Health Centre every week for about 2/3 months, each visit he would have many attempts on each arm but nothing. He became more and more distressed and frightened and afterwards his arms were so painful for days. The last visit he had 8 attempts with no success. I don’t blame the nurses as they were as upset as us, my son's veins were just so bad.

I did a bit of research myself and found the OPAT nurses were willing to come to my house to take his blood. I can’t describe how expert they were, taking time to talk with my son and reassuring him and he responded quickly to them. The specimen was obtained without a problem and I was told they would come back again when required. They came again on recently and specimen obtained. I can’t put into words how this service has met our great need, no more sleepless nights worrying.

I do recommend that this service could be made available to others who have this difficulty with their veins, especially those with a learning disability.

I wish to commend Pauline and Susan for the expertise and professionalism shown to my son and myself