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Care Opinion

Long wait

Posted By jcjc2000b

"Long wait"

About: Birmingham Children's Hospital / Ophthalmology

(as a parent/guardian),

The days we have to visit the Eye Department at the Birmingham Children's Hospital is always a traumatic experience.

How can the Ophthalmology Dept keep you 3 to 4 hours for a scheduled appointment. There is admittedly a wait of 20 mins for eye drops but why is the whole the service so antiquated?

As parents we raised concerns previously via the PALS service. We heard nothing and then we followed up to find that they'd put a follow up action in the wrong year (previous) in their calendar.

We had an MRI when our daughter was 1 and they put the wrong name tag (a boy) on our daughter's leg. When we informed the nurse they nonchalantly just removed the tag and put the correct one on. Should this not have been reported as an incident?

To try and cope with our laborious wait in the Ophthalmology Dept we went in search of the Children's play area. The Front Desk Reception told us it was at the far end up the stairs and past the Conservatory. When we got there 'Forward Thinking Birmingham' told us the Children's Play area was currently out of action.

As per the start of this - our experience of the Birmingham Childrens Hospital is always a traumatic one. The Eye Department should be sorted out once and for all. As a result - we want to transfer to Moorfields despite the extra travel involved.

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Responses

Response from Janette Vyse, Deputy Head of Nursing, Patient Experience & Participation Lead, Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust 8 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Janette Vyse
Deputy Head of Nursing, Patient Experience & Participation Lead,
Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 05/03/2016 at 13:01
Published on Care Opinion at 16:56

Dear jcjc2000b

Thank you for telling us about your experience, I am sorry that you have experienced long waits and frustrations and it is extremely disappointing, and sad to hear you describe your experience as traumatic and that you wish to move your daughter's eye care to another hospital - I would like to look at what we can do to improve things for you and your daughter.

With regard to the opthamology department, I will pass this to the clinical lead and department manager to ask them to respond. I would like them to respond directly to you, could you please let me have a telephone number, email or address to which they can do so.

You also raise a number of other points which I think there could be some learning from and would welcome the opportunity to discuss them further with you in person.

My e mail is janette.vyse@bch.nhs.uk and my direct line is 0121 333 8619

With kind regards

Janette Vyse

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Response from Janette Vyse, Deputy Head of Nursing, Patient Experience & Participation Lead, Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust 8 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Janette Vyse
Deputy Head of Nursing, Patient Experience & Participation Lead,
Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 21/03/2016 at 17:14
Published on Care Opinion on 22/03/2016 at 10:55

Hi,

Further to my previous reply, I just wanted to let you know that I have spoken with the Head of the Eye Department and one of the Consultants and they were both very sorry to hear about your recent experience. They know that there can be long waiting times and this is sometimes due to the nature of the tests involved.

However, they are keen to provide a better experience for children, young people and families and are already reviewing the patient pathway through the department to look at how waiting times can be improved.

I hope that is helpful for you to hear and as before, if you wish to discuss anything further then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,

Janette

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