To think this response to a hospital complaint isn’t good enough ?

[famedThesaurusofTheforgotten]

Dd had been unwell for some months in 2019. Repeated trips to gp. Nothing found.
Stomach aches, cold all the time, not growing well feeling sick etc etc all those sorts of symptoms and worsening. Kept being told ‘viral’

One week she was so unwell we took her to a and e as I suspected anaemia maybe as she was sleeping a lot and had no energy?
I was very worried we were seen and a dr said she probably needs some bloods done which I agreed with and we went to wait for the emla cream etc.

Then we were called through by a diff dr and agressively questioned then said she actually didn’t actually think bloods were needed i said I wanted her to have them done she kept shouting at me in front of dd ‘why do you want me to hurt her by putting needles in her ?’ And ‘I won’t stick needles in a child for no reason ‘
She was absolutely horrible told us dd was ‘fine ‘ That she looked fine I tried to explain she looked so much healthier a year before and had now become paler and thinner but she said no she looked fine to her

She was aggressive and was telling me I wanted to have my child hurt for no reason with a needle ??

I decided to walk out and we then went private. Waited a couple of weeks had bloods and dd was anaemic and had coeliacs.
I complained to the hospital and this has taken months to investigate then again as they said nothing had been found the first time that the dr hasn’t done anything wrong so i said no look at this again and theybe come back with ‘sorry that you felt this way’ basically. No apology no admittance that dd had needed bloods nothing and I’m so cross we were treated like we wanted to hurt our child!
I don’t know what to do now all I’ve been able to do is leave an online review for this dr to warn others but she was abominable and I’m really upset that we don’t even get an apology

@Lorieandrews

Oh bless you!

My dd was very poorly. Over the space of 2 years I took her to the gp over 50 times. I took her to a and e. She was having fevers. Every single 10 days. Her teeth disintegrated. Because she vomited so much. She was screaming in agony

I was told it was viral. When I was at a and e. They said they’d give her morphine. Which helped. They said to get something stronger than calpol. (The a and e trip was a nightmare). They said they’d sent a report to my gp explains this the next day.

Great. So rang my gp. They told me they’d got the report. Great. Can I have an appointment. Yes. Fab

I get into the gp office. Which at this point all my child is doing is screaming hysterically in pain. She’s also not one who gets sick. So I said before her fevers. You’ll see. She was never sick. She agreed. I said about what the dr had said. About pain relief. Seeing as she’s just screaming snd crying saying mummy it hurts. Mummy is so bad. Mummy make the pain stop. The dr tells me they haven’t got the report and how bad a mother I was for asking for morphine for my child. First off. I didn’t ask for morphine. Not once. I didn’t even tell her she’d had it the night before. I said eh? Where did you get that from. She said it was obvious that’s what I was asking for.....I said ok right....I said you can see for yourself. She’s screaming. She’s been like this for a week....all I’m asking for is something better than calpol. She said she’s refusing to do so because the next step for a child would be morphine. I said so you’re telling me. There’s nothing pain relief wise in between calpol and morphine?!?? It’s one or the other? That’s it??? I don’t want her to have it. But what she’s having now isn’t working....which was both calpol and ibuprofen...

Long story short. I walked out of there crying. My daughter still in agony. I rang the private hospital when I got home and made an app the next day.

Turns out she had a really rare condition

I made an official complaint against that gp. Not for what she said to me. Or how she treated me. But for leaving a screaming little child in agony.....

I got the same as you. Sorry for that. Won’t happen again. That’s it.

I’m so sorry you went through that

I wanted to also add

I have a rare condition. If I get sick and don’t realise it. I can go into a crisis. Which is a life threatening emergency. Most drs are trained in it and the treatment is steroid injection. Like an EPI pen. Extra steroids once won’t harm. Yet without it we can die a very preventable death

So I got poorly with this crisis. When I got to hospital. The de refused me the emergency injection. (Would they refuse a diabetic in a diabetic coma? Or an Epi pen in an anaphylactic shock?) I eventually went unconscious. At that point my mum injected me with my own injection

I nearly died.

So I wrote to a very well known dr of my condition. Who then forwarded my email to my hospitals consultant. Who put in an official complaint on my behalf

Now that got sorted. Quickly too. I put in a complaint with PALS. As did both consultants. It got sorted id say within 3 days

Is there anyway you Dan get the backing of the private dr? It really makes them sit up and notice.

YABU, you misused A&E. An A&E doctor and a GP are completely different and do completely different jobs.

We’re a collector in our house of the same rare conditions!

[quote LiJo2015]@greatpopcorn

I went to southanpton and bristol med school. I also have experience of medics at KCL. Too many stories.[/quote]
I agree too.
Sorry for your experience OP. You were right to go to A&E with a pale lethargic child. The doctor’s attitude was wrong and she missed a diagnosis but she was probably very stressed and busy and only watching out for emergencies.
Certainly write to your GP and point out the failure of care. Sounds like their paediatrics need updating.

@Dogonahottinroof

What did the out of hours GP say before you went to A&E?

I was told repeatedly she had ‘a virus’ on the actual day I took her to a and e I was told viral, possibly post viral fatigue. Not to worry. But I carried her back to the car and she fell asleep as we drove the few minutes home and I thought no this isn’t ok she’s just slept 13 hours overnight, got up had a drs appt and is asleep again less than 3 hours after waking and not wanting to walk so we went to the hospital I didn’t want to put her to bed at home I genuinely didn’t know what might happen. I didn’t know really anything about coeliacs stuff that point I was stressed about other conditions

It can take days for a coeliac blood test to come back and A&E don’t have a follow up mechanism so really they were correct not to do the bloods. They should have explained that and asked you to contact the GP about it if they felt it was warranted though.

Re diabetes / other emergencies children always get obs done and usually a urine dip so they will have been able to tell that your child wasn’t critically ill prior to discharge.

Crap that they were rude. I think personally I’d try and forget about it. The doctor shouldn’t have been rude but you never know what else was going on that day.

@Mustbe3ormorecharacters

YABU, you misused A&E. An A&E doctor and a GP are completely different and do completely different jobs.

she didn't, and they're not. They have all the same basic training, you know? Both should know how to treat a child in these circumstances, and what investigations to do.

The GP should have done more, and then OP wouldnt have needed A&E, but they didnt and op rightly went to a&e with a very lethargic child and the doctor their was useless and rude.

Your complaint needs to be 2 fold.

First to GP practice for not recognising symptoms of coeliacs and not investigating further when a previously healthy child was getting older and iller.

Then comparing to a and e. Saying that you presented because child was getting so ill they were sleeping excessively. That yo7 presented as were concerned.

To have a concerned parent accused of wanting to hurt their child is insulting at best.

That in fact they were ill. You have also complained to GP for your dd ending up so ill. But you want a written apology for the hospital consultant for a) not recognising a child who was clearly ill and 2) making serious unfounded assumptions.

Agree that your main complaint should be with gp for not investigating further. If you're not happy with hospital response than go to the ombudsman. You may well be out of time for gp complaint though.

If you're unhappy with their response to your complaint write to the psho

Just want to add, completely understand why you took her to the A&E, sometimes the GPs just don't listen. Same for my DD spent months waiting for the GP to do something but they keeps saying she's fine, so we finally took her to A&E and she finally got diagnosed properly.
So yes if only the system is working then there wouldn't be a need to take people to the A&E!

"My child had worsened and was sleeping whole days !!"

So that was the point you should have gone back to the GP to order the tests.

What a pity you weren't told that your daughter's condition wasn't appropriate for a&e. Surely that's the crux of the matter.

Hi OP IM a ward sister on a paediatric ward/paediatric A and E. Just to say I haven't read the whole thread.
Firstly what are you hoping to achieve from your complaint? Will an apology be enough? Will this satisfy you or are you looking for more than that?
I think the public needs to accept that doctors and nurses do make mistakes and that occasionally we come across as abrupt but contrary to what many think we are not super heroes (or villains for that matter) we are just ordinary people trying to do a job in what has always been a very difficult situation but over the last 12 months has become an impossible situation. The pressure we are all under is enormous Ive been nursing for 30+ years I've never known anything like it. Im not saying its right that the doctor you saw was aggressive and shouted at you but Im afraid particular in the current circumstances it does sometimes happen. In my extensive experience of dealing with numerous complaints you are nearly always offered an apology even if we haven't done anything wrong so I'm slightly surprised you haven't received one. So if you genuinely feel an apology is what you need and will make you feel better go back to PALS and talk to them.
Having said this Im afraid most are right A and E isn't the place to get a diagnosis of what is likely to have been a chronic anaemia and or coeliac disease, even if you had had that blood test and a chronic anaemia found assuming everything else was normal it is unlikely that anything would have been done about that day, the most likely thing would have been a prescription for an iron supplement and a follow up appointment in what in my hospital we call a rapid access clinic (with a paediatric registrar) or possibly a longer wait with a consultant paediatrician. Assuming this blood test been been done this would obviously have been a better outcome than paying to go privately.
Blood tests in 5 yr olds are always fraught, the children hate it and the parents get upset, no one wants to bleed a child unnecessarily in a bust A and E dept, the doctor must have felt that it was not warranted that day at that moment and therefore did not do it. We generally advise parents to return to their GP if symptoms persists etc so if you didn't receive this advise perhaps you should have. But in all honesty assuming you child was properly assessed in A and E I don't think anymore would have been done.

I would have complained via GP and asked for a referral via Gp and asked for a second opinion or complained to practice manager if needed or not listened to.
It is not an a and e matter. Her attitude might stink but you don’t do bloods in a and e to check for allergies like gluten. I would explain how you feel to PALS and the local Nhs trust if you want but really your gp needed to be on this.

In all honesty my anger is directed at the hospital doctor as I was at the end of my tether and terrified. The gp had kept calmly trying to tell me it was viral and don’t worry which obviously was wrong but then the day I felt enough was enough to basically be told I wanted my child to be hurt was just awful - I then felt that not only was she probably ill at that point I had no idea with what that I was then being accused of wanting to put her through unnecessary invasive tests and confronted by an aggressive doctor which took me by surprise and was extremely upsetting

@2021hastobebetter

I would have complained via GP and asked for a referral via Gp and asked for a second opinion or complained to practice manager if needed or not listened to. It is not an a and e matter. Her attitude might stink but you don’t do bloods in a and e to check for allergies like gluten. I would explain how you feel to PALS and the local Nhs trust if you want but really your gp needed to be on this.

I wasn’t asking for a coeliac test (tbh it wasn’t even a condition I’d considered I was scared of other things with the symptoms she had)

I think you need to accept you got a result and now you know what's wrong and let go of all the dram. By the sounds of it just in this one threat let alone in real life, you are coming across very angry and will end up making yourself ill. What is the result you want out of all this? Have your say/feedback and leave it to be check out. It's almost like you want blood or someone fired. Everyone's having a tough time and hospitals are doing their best as are gps.

She kept telling me how dd looked fine amd is seen her change in a few months to a pale thin cold exhausted child and was being told my child ‘looked fine’ I said to her ‘you’ve never really met us before you don’t know how she looked a few months ago and how unwell she now looks compared to then’ she didn’t care kept repeating she looked fine and why did I want her to be hurt

I thought I did the right thing it could have been any number of conditions I couldn’t have just waited and waited

You need to complain to your GP and the CCG not A&E. GP should have took bloods and referred to paediatrics. It's not good use of A&Es resources.
The hospital doctor is probably frustrated by people bringing their children in when it is a GP job. Their attitude did sound off but this is only one side of the story we're hearing.

OP you should complain about your GP and you should stop your attacks on the A&E who were correct to tell you to leave. They could have been more polite, but you were asking them to do something that is not their job and that would prevent them doing their actual jobs.

They are not there to do the job of GPs and they take blood tests connected to medical emergencies. Not because your GP isn’t great and you want a standard appointment and ongoing health plan. Totally innapropriate place to go.

Personally I do not think you were wrong to go to A&E. I have been in your shoes with my dd. being fobbed off by GP countless times, waiting weeks/months between appointments. being given drugs that they have no idea what is it they are treating, just trying out different things. To the point I said no more drugs unless you know exactly what it is you are treating here.
We too ended up in a&e. actually twice, as her condition deteriorated massively on those occasions and one of them I had to call an ambulance.
off the back of that last a&e visit we are now seeing a specialist who is taking the investigation into her symptoms seriously. So yes, it took that action to get her actually seen by someone who her gp should have referred to her to at least 18 months ago.

I had no complaint with the a&e doctors we saw, they were fantastic, but I have in the past seen a completely horrible doctor, who delivered me devastating news with the empathy and understanding of a twig. She was so cold, abrupt and treated me like an interference of her day and I was left upset and confused. I can't imagine being treated like that about your child, that must have been so much worse. Not all doctors are lovely unfortunately and I'm sorry you saw one when you were obviously worried about your dd. In all honestly though, I do not think there is alot you can do about it if they have dismissed your complaint. On the upside, if the same doctor received numerous complaints they may start looking into things further, so I do think its important to complain even if you get no where personally.

I also wonder if all these people saying you were so wrong to go to a&e would in fact do the same if their child was in the same situation. I very much doubt they would all sit home and do nothing as their child deteriorates before their eyes.

I think your anger is misdirected here.

She was assessed by A&E and determined not to need any immediate action. Subsequent tests have confirmed the doctor was correct in their assessment of no urgent action required (even if their viral diagnosis was incorrect). Now this could be luck rather than judgment but I'm not sure what pursuing a complaint will achieve.