"Our stay in Acorn ward"

My 2 month old son was bought into Whipps Cross Hospital by the ambulance. At first we were a bit worried as we have never been here but once we got to the children’s   A& E the nurses and doctors seemed friendly and were giving our son all the care needed e. g tests being done. Within a hour they told us his urine had white blood cells they were just waiting on bloods results and then a decision will be made. We got both results for urine and blood and it wasn’t looking good the doctor told us that they will have to put a cannula in baby’s arm, that totally freaked me out as he is only 2 months but the doctor was so nice she explained that if I can’t be there as I have a needle phobia, she and another nurse will do it while I look away, straight that bought down my anxiety levels. There was a long wait to be taken to the Acorn ward where we was told that he will stay for the next couple of days we waited around 4 hours just to be taken to the ward. Once we got to Acorn ward the staff here was very friendly and caring. Every time there is a staff change through the day the nurse that will take your child’s observation will introduce themselves and I thought that was really nice because you know who is entering the room. The only two downside was that the toilets are far from the rooms so when my son was awake I couldn’t leave him on his own and I had to wait for my husband or a family member to come to go toilet. What would’ve been ideal if the rooms had their own toilets rather than having them far from the rooms. Also the staff talk very loud at night, constantly moving things at night and their file cabinet is outside the room I was in and every few minutes they will file or take the file needed, which made getting sleep for myself or the baby was more hard to get.

Overall my experience at the Acorn ward has been lovely and I did feel comfortable the nurses loved coming in to have a play will my son. And the doctors here do make sure they do all the checks before they dismiss you which comparing to my local hospital don’t. I will defiantly know where to go next time and also will recommend family and friends to come here too.