"Excellent, pioneering service"

My little boy has complex needs and is prone to chest infections which frequently land him in hospital. As a mum with three children, living an hour's drive from the Sick Kids, hospital admissions are difficult to say the least. Furthermore, they almost inevitably end up in my son contracting additional respiratory infections whilst inpatient. Thus, minimising inpatient stays is imperative for us.

The paediatric rapid response specialist respiratory physio team, led by Zoe, has made the world of difference to us in this respect. For example, last week we had an issue with my son's tube-feed which meant their was a high likelihood he had aspirated some milk into his lungs. Sure enough, on Friday morning he was sounding crackly and oxygen saturations were lower than normal. I couldn't be sure whether his lungs were dangerously compromised, or whether he just had a slight cold that we could deal with in the community. After a quick text message, the physio came to the house the same day, gave my son a thorough check over and a good round of chest physio, and took swabs for microbiology. We also agreed to start a course of antibiotics to be on the safe side - these were organised via the GP and picked up from the pharmacy within three hours of her visit.

Over the weekend my son has improved dramatically and we have felt confident in continuing to treat him at home. Without the advice of the physio team on Friday, I am almost certain we would have had to take a trip to the busy A&E over the weekend, possibly resulting in a week-long inpatient stay. So, win-win for us and the NHS. The rapid response team is a fantastic method of keeping vulnerable children safe in the community and preventing hospital admissions. I can't thank them enough for being on-call for us whenever we need them.