"Daughter's Referral to Opthalmology Clinic"

As a parent, it is absolutely horrendous when you find out that your child is unwell or has a condition whereby they need to be referred to hospital, albeit children are far often more resilient then their parents.

We arrived early and were provided good details of where to go, but a volunteer was more than happy to help show us the way (think he picked up on how nervous I was).

The clinic was a short walk from reception via a beautiful courtyard garden filled with spring flowers and benches.

We checked in via the automatic system and were seated for all of 5 minutes before being called, despite being early.

My daughter was assessed primarily with an eye test and made to feel completely at ease by the male nurse.

We were shown to a secondary waiting room and seen within 10 minutes by a very thorough, informative female doctor, who then brought in the surgical consultant.

It was explained my daughter required various medication and surgery.

The latter being the unexpected part.

So, we were given a prescription which we collected and follow up letter.

A week later we received confirmation of surgery and we called to arrange a date.

I had a few questions re recovery time and was called back within 5 minutes.

Received actual surgery date confirmation and comprehensive patient information the next day in the post (Sat), beyond impressive!

We have also received our post surgery follow up appointment since.

The prescription my daughter was given contained some expensive medication ££ and we had three months prescribed. So as we were, at the time, unsure how long she needed to take it, I asked whether the pharmacy at the hospital could hold onto some of her prescription as if she didn't need it and it would be unused, we couldn't hand it back to be used even if unopened so would be destroyed, a needless expense to our NHS.

Now, we feel better knowing that whatever the outcome, this can be used again by someone else or by my daughter if needed.

The Pharmacy staff were amazing and engaged too with my daughter making sure she knew exactly how her meds needed to be taken.

We always knew how special QVH was, but my daughter had asked to go to London to see the coding machine and go to Churchill's exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, so she learnt about QVH pioneering legacy in plastics before even visiting it herself.

Honestly, as a switched on, sassy 10 year old, her first words upon arriving were 'this looks like we've gone back in time', but she knows about preconceptions and why they should be left at the door!

Never judge a book by it's cover ....

She came out talking about 'wacky gas' I have nothing ..... Certainly not discussed .... Made a few snigger though, me included.

I'm not looking forward to surgery day, but I can honestly say that I've been informed fully of everything, all we have met have been amazing and I'm honoured she will have surgery at QVH as it really is the NHS at it's best!

Will update.