"Cleft Palate Repair"

Our 4 year old was admitted in Nov for cleft palate repair surgery. I’d like to make my first point regarding their surgeon; They were an absolute star. They made us feel comfortable and welcome the moment we first spoke to them back in March 2022 up until the actual surgery. They were kind, compassionate, reassuring, knowledgeable and made us all laugh which is very important to me. So a massive thank you to them for their excellent work. 

The theatre staff were super lovely with my child but the night staff on ward 3B left a lot to be desired. When we went to grab some food and fresh air, we were called saying they couldn’t settle my child and that we would need to return. Bare in mind we travelled 3 hours from 7am and hadn’t eaten ourselves until after their surgery at 2.45pm. After we had eaten, we noted we had not received another call. Upon our return to the ward less than an hour later, our child was sitting up in their cot crying and stressing, there was no nurse at the station and anyone who walked by the room didn’t even look in despite their cries. My partner, sister-in-law and myself - we stood and watched, pretty shocked, until a nurse walked by and we asked for an update on our child. They didn’t even look at us instead shrugging and saying simply they didn’t have anything to do with them and they will find someone else.

We raised our complaint with the Nurse in Charge and all we got was that our child couldn’t be settled and that they didn’t intentionally upset them. The nurse who called us earlier that night I felt was extremely rude and didn’t appear to me like they even attempted to comfort our child when they woken up while we were eating. The Nurse in Charge we spoke to, although they were understanding, still made no effort to find or speak to this nurse who had disregarded us when we arrived back to the ward.

After that, it took my child's dad and auntie, 2 and a half hours to then settle them back to sleep and help them stay asleep. As my (her mum)‘s presence only upset our child more, I couldn’t stay with them as they just clung to me crying to go home and would get even more stressed, this made me even more anxious to leave them under the care of the Night staff. I’d just worry that they would wake up and be left to cry themselves back to sleep. As an already anxious parent, I feel that if you’re going to work in a children’s hospital then you need to show more respect and compassion for the parents and the children who are clearly very traumatised. It felt so bad, I had to talk myself out of discharging my child myself and taking them home so I knew they were safe and being cared for appropriately.

However, the day nurses were outstanding. Much more approachable and actually made the effort to comfort our child and try to explain to them they were not there to harm them. The nurses who made this effort were very quickly able to earn our little kids trust (which is rare when they are so terrified) which in turn was able to help us relax instead of worry like we had the night before. 

The surgeons team were second to none and I absolutely cannot fault them, our child was fighting fit the next afternoon and was finally discharged at 2.30pm for the 3 hour drive home. The discharge process was quick. They had their fluid drip flushed and removed efficiently by one of the lovely nurses and were able to walk around happily. 

Other than the night experience, the stay was reasonable thanks to the staff nurses who did their job exceptionally and the surgeon and their team.