Care Opinion

On the whole I couldn't fault the stay

Posted By K.Q19/10

"On the whole I couldn't fault the stay"

About: Paediatrics / Acorn Ward South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust / Emergency ambulance

(as a parent/guardian),

My daughter was blue lighted into Musgrove hospital after clusters of seizures. The paramedics from the ambulance service was incredible, helped my child breathe and even checked in on us before they clocked off for the day!

Once arriving at MPH we went straight into resus and then onto the HDU children’s ward (Acorn). What a wonderful bunch of people. All staff on that ward was lovely but there were a few that stood out for us. One lady - she was a breath of fresh air, sensitive but at the same time she knew how to keep my spirits high! And then there were two others, both of these ladies went above and beyond, they completely understood my child’s needs and always checked regularly on my child and  made sure I was ok for everything! 

On our stay my child needed a MRI and a lumbar puncture which all consults and drs had told us she needed due to on going seizures. Unfortunately this is where my experience went downhill. A member of staff came into the HDU and was saying how they didn’t find it necessary for my child to have the MRI as there is no medical evidence that the results would be used to determine whether it was my child’s brain causing the seizures. My child is a very complex child and has got brain-related problems. This obviously made me cross and I found this very upsetting! I reported it to another member of staff, who reported it straight away to the consultant who was on that morning. Thankfully the mri went ahead. Other staff said that I shouldn’t have gone through that and apologised even though it wasn’t their fault. 

On the whole I couldn’t fault the stay. A huge thank you to the ones who took care of my child and communicated to her respectfully and gave her your time! It didn’t go unnoticed. Thank you all x

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Responses

Response from Amy Leitch, Senior Sister, Emergency Department, Somerset Foundation Trust 2 months ago
Amy Leitch
Senior Sister, Emergency Department,
Somerset Foundation Trust

Submitted on 28/08/2024 at 08:19
Published on Care Opinion at 08:19

Hi K.Q19/10

Thank you for your lovely feedback regarding the Emergency Department, will feedback to the rest of the team

Kind regards

Amy Leitch

ED Senior Sister

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Response from Dr Holly Mincher, Paediatric speciality doctor in training, Paediatrics, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust last month
We are preparing to make a change
Dr Holly Mincher
Paediatric speciality doctor in training, Paediatrics,
Somerset NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 10/09/2024 at 17:19
Published on Care Opinion at 17:56

picture of Dr Holly Mincher

Dear K.Q19/10

Many thanks for your time in sharing your experience about your daughter’s stay with us and your kind thanks to all our colleagues who looked after you and your daughter. I hope your daughter is now better and her seizures have improved.

I very much appreciate your stay must have been a very worrisome time for you and your daughter. During these times we do understand the importance of individualised and attentive care, especially for our children with complex needs, so I am delighted our HDU colleagues were able to provide you with the much-needed support and reassurance during your time with us. Our HDU nursing colleagues have a wealth of experience and expertise and always go above and beyond for all our patients. We are very fortunate to them as part of our team and thank you for your very kind feedback about their care.

I am very sorry and saddened to hear you were involved in conflicting discussions about your daughter’s MRI. Understandably this would have been very distressing for you and I do appreciate it would have added to an already stressful hospital admission. We always aim for consistency in information sharing between colleagues and our patients and families and I'm sorry you did not experience this. We are currently exploring with our colleagues what happened. Our initial conversations have suggested there was an acute system issue across the whole hospital that required a review of all planned MRI scans and that this may have impacted upon the situation. We stress, this does not support nor condone the conflicting messages you received from different colleagues across paediatrics and our subspecialty colleagues. When we share your feedback we will emphasise with colleagues the importance of shared and consistent communication with our patients and families. In the meantime, we would very much like to hear from you and invite you to have a conversation with us to explore your experiences further. If you would like to contact us please email our Matrons Suzy Mason and Caroline Jackson directly via Suzy.Mason@somersetft.nhs.uk and Caroline.Jackson@somersetft.nhs.uk.

Again, thank you for your feedback and thanks. We do hugely appreciate you sharing your story as it helps us to improve our ongoing care and service provision for our children, young people and families.

I will pass your feedback onto all our colleagues who looked after your daughter in HDU and I will also share more widely with the whole of the Children’s unit.

Yours sincerely

Dr Holly

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Response from Deanne Hill, Patient Engagement Manager, South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust last month
Deanne Hill
Patient Engagement Manager,
South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 19/09/2024 at 17:38
Published on Care Opinion at 17:38

Dear K.Q19/10

Thank you so much for providing us with feedback on the recent service you received from us, it is much appreciated! We are so glad to hear that you were well looked after by the ambulance crew who attended you, though we are sorry that you had to experience this at all.

For confidentiality, your patient information is redacted on this platform and so we cannot find the details of your incident, we would love to pass your message onto the Ambulance crew who attended you and so, if you would be willing to share some additional information, please could you email compliments@swast.nhs.uk with your name, date the ambulance arrived, address and thank you message, we will then ensure this is passed onto to the relevant crew. We also have an online form on our website if this is more convenient.

Thank you again for taking the time to feedback and we do hope you're recovering well!

Kindest regards,

Phil

Patient Engagement Team
SWAST

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