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"Daughter's hip operation"

About: Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital (Wonford) / Paediatric surgery Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital (Wonford) / Trauma and orthopaedics

(as a service user),

My daughter went to an yearly appointment to see her surgeon in August to check on her hip dysplasia, found she will need a operation to correct it and help with walking and pain. She is 8 year old, after a lot of chasing phone call got the MRI done and further chasing by me to get the authogram operation to look and plan, her big op was done in September 2020, further chasing by me to surgeons Secretary to get appointment to get results of MRI I finally got appointment in beginning of December to discuss the plan, surgeon said my daughter needed the operation done sooner rather than later and needs it done in the first three months of the new year, if left longer it will cause further pain, disablement, and damage and will not be able to be operated on and she will need a total hip replacement in her teens instead.


Normally it would have been completed by December that year but due to covid she has to wait for opening, this was before the latest lockdown, I informed school, got everything organised for her operation, after Christmas having heard nothing on the operation date I chased the Secretary again, the second restart said my daughter has been penciled in for 2nd feb so told the school, planned everything got the wheelchair and waited. Lockdown 3 started I called to confirm my daughter's still pencilled in, they said call back a week before as they don't have surgery slots given until a week before but in mean time I  should have telephone pre-op.

We are now a week before, having heard nothing I called, learned the person I spoke to previously is not available, and I had to call the hip team to get them to chase for information, they called me back stating that all operations have been cancelled to make room for covid and they don't know when my daughter will get her operation!   To the hip teams credit they are going to talk to surgeon to get an idea of what or when but now I'm annoyed as we have been waiting effectively since August last year for her operation to be done, and now cancelled with no idea if it when it will be done all the while my daughter's mobility is getting worse, she now walks with crutches, she is in pain and has to stop every 10 minutes to rest as she has pain. How is it Okay to leave a child in pain of she misses this operation window the only option open to get will be total hip replacement when she stops growing which is 5 years or so away, . I know we all should be doing our bit for covid and understanding about cancelled operations, but to leave a child in pain and it being detrimental to her mobility and the fact I have had to do all the running calling MRI, calling xray chasing for appointments to see surgeon, informing schools, and keeping my child separated from others so she doesn't get ill and can have her operation, to be told nope because of Covid your child can't have her operation and we have no idea when it will be, is like a smack in the face, and leaves me very angry worried and left in limbo with no answers as to what happens now. If I was rich I would be paying tribute to get my child the treatment she needs but since I'm not I feel like I have failed her.

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Responses

Response from Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 3 years ago
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Submitted on 28/01/2021 at 10:41
Published on Care Opinion at 12:38


Dear Contc97

Thank you for taking the time to give your feedback. I am sorry to hear of your experience and to ensure we can feed this back to the correct teams we would like to discuss this further with you. Please call the Patient Experience and Liaison Service (PALS) on 01392 402093.

Kind regards

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