"Uncaring Doctor - Not Suited to Newborn Babies"

My Wife and I were referred to Blackburn Hospital as our new born baby was suffering from breathing issues.

With the view of providing a concise review:

The doctor on shift that evening did no observations of our newborn, but persisted in theorising about all the possibilities of what could be wrong with him, whilst concluding each time, with: "He Looks fine to me, im sure your just worrying too much"

This was despite an earlier consultant feeling the need to keep him in for "observations"

When we asked them why our sons monitoring equipment has alarms which were constantly sounding, they explained, we shouldn't take much notice as the machines are inaccurate, the proceeded to remove the monitoring concluding the would spot check our child every 4 hours, despite having left us listening to this screaming alarm for hours like white noise torture.

When we asked if the could take a little heal prick from his foot to check his blood for infection markers, they outlined this wasn't possible and only a full blood work up would be possible, however having attended a different hospital the next day, their heal price was more than suffice.

My wife needed a sterilising kit for their breast pump, which turned into three nurse station visits and a standoff between my wife vs the nurse station, who claimed we did not need to sterilising box for the pump and they insinuated we were been difficulty, plus they didn't have one.

After reading NHS guideline and speaking to another hospital, we outlined we would require a new expressing pump if they were unable to sterilising box for the one used hours ago, to which the nurses said: "why, your wife's breasts are not sterile, so why do you need one"

"Because breast milk is sterile and a premature newborn of 36 weeks is more vulnerable to infection.

Suddenly some time later a sterilising kit which they didn't have earlier appeared.

I also expressed we were not happy with the doctor’s competence with a premature baby and didn't feel the ward not team understood the risk or how to treat our sons issues, only to be told there was no consultant on that evening who we could speak to.

When my wife pressed the nursing buzzer at 4am, due to my sons breathing deteriorating, the nurse which attended didn't complete any observations, and said "he's probably fine, but isnt he cute"

My wife the pressed the buzzer again 10 minutes later as she felt his breathing was still getting worse and insisted on seeing the doctor, who didn't turn up for a further 40 minutes, by which time our son had fallen asleep and settled thankfully.

The only person who knew what she was taking about was the consultant who attended the next morning, who understood what could be wrong with him and how best to treat him but suffice to say if our son has become seriously ill overnight, we were not in capable hands, so much so, i was ringing other hospitals in the area to ask if we could be transferred.