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It took almost 5 hours for medication to be sorted

Posted By Sage10

"It took almost 5 hours for medication to be sorted"

About: Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (Edinburgh) / Critical Care Unit Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (Edinburgh) / Dalhousie Ward Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (Edinburgh) / Pharmacy

(as a parent/guardian),

My son has been discharged from hospital today after spending time in both the PICU and Dalhousie Wards. 

I cannot fault the level of care he received in both wards during his admission. In particular I'd like to thank Cameron, Louise, Gloria, Emma, Amy, Allana and Kerry (Charge Nurse) in PICU and Lauren and Mhairi in Dalhousie. 

Lauren in Dalhousie could not have done enough for us today during our discharge. It took almost 5 hours for medication to be sorted and Lauren did everything she could to speed up the process and also making sure we were ok. In my opinion a script and medication should never take that long and I was becoming impatient as was my son. 

Lauren also took the time to call once we were home to ensure all was OK and we were settled and apologised for the mix up upon discharge, which I assured her wasn't her fault. 

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Responses

Response from Melinda Cuthbert, Associate Director of Pharmacy, Pharmacy services in Acute Services, NHS Lothian last week
We are preparing to make a change
Melinda Cuthbert
Associate Director of Pharmacy, Pharmacy services in Acute Services,
NHS Lothian

Submitted on 15/01/2026 at 10:09
Published on Care Opinion at 10:37

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback regarding your son’s recent discharge experience. We are pleased to hear that the care provided by our teams in PICU and Dalhousie met your expectations and that individual staff members offered such compassionate support.

We are very sorry to learn about the delay in arranging medication at discharge and the frustration this caused for you and your son. We understand how important it is for the discharge process to be timely and efficient, and we regret that this was not your experience on this occasion.

The delay occurred due to a communication gap regarding the discharge plan, which meant the prescription was not prepared as early as it should have been. We acknowledge that this impacted your experience and will review our processes to ensure better coordination between clinical teams and pharmacy in the future.

Thank you again for highlighting both the positive aspects of care and the areas where we can improve. Your feedback is invaluable in helping us enhance the quality of service we provide.


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Response from Lewis Doult, Clinical Nurse Manager, Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, NHS Lothian last week
Lewis Doult
Clinical Nurse Manager, Royal Hospital for Children and Young People,
NHS Lothian

Submitted on 15/01/2026 at 11:17
Published on Care Opinion at 11:17

Dear Sage10,

I am sorry to hear your son has been an inpatient in Critical Care and Dalhousie. I hope he is recovering well.

I am the Clinical Nurse Manager for Dalhousie ward. I have personally thanked Lauren and Mhairi for the care that they gave your son.

I am sorry to hear of your difficulties in obtaining your sons discharge medication. I can see that my colleague from pharmacy has already responded to you about this and we will work with pharmacy to improve the processes around this. Thank you for taking your time to bring it to our attention.

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