School has lost DD’s medication for the second time

[Soubriquet]

Dd has asthma. Luckily she hasn’t had an attack in years but in cold wet weather, she gets a really bad wheeze and needs to use her inhaler.

She went to the office to get it to discover they had lost her inhaler. Again.

Then, instead of ringing us to discuss it, just sent her back to her classroom. She’s 9.

I wasn’t happy at all.

Today, I’ve sent her in with her inhaler and spacer in her bag minus the box so that they can’t take it off her and send it to the office.

I was already cross at inhalers being kept in the office to begin with. Minutes can spell the difference between carrying on and desperately needing an ambulance.

That's really bad, but just a thought - could it have expired, they've chucked it and forgotten to tell you? It might be worth taking a note of the expiry date before you hand it in, if so, so you can swap when needed.

OP it's utterly ridiculous of the school. Just let her manage it herself if you feel she's able to, leave it in her bag.

Dear god that's totally unacceptable. Let's hope they aren't as careless with epi pens 😳

Definitely wasn’t expired but I agree that if it was, they should have told us.

They did in the past, and I was able to replace it quickly, so I don’t know why they didnt call this time.

@Baldieheid inhalers don't expire quickly, my current one is 2024.

That’s what I’m planning to do.

Have one in the office so it ticks their box, and then let her have hers in her bag

I would be absolutely raging about that. And I would raise yesterday as a safeguarding issue. A very brief Google will bring up multiple articles about children dying when they have been prevented from using asthma medications in a timely manner.

School need to know how serious this is - that they were playing with her life yesterday and every day that they expect a child having breathing difficulties to walk themselves anywhere to access life saving medication.

Get her a bumbag and inform them she will be carrying her inhaler with her at all times from now on. And make it very very clear to them that not having it is a medical emergency and that they must contact you, and observe her closely, at the very least, whilst being prepared to call an ambulance if her breathing worsens before you can be reached, if there is ever another occasion when she does not have access to her meds.

It doesn’t matter that she was fine this time. That was lucky for her and them. They must take this seriously.

I think you should escalate this OP, it is not acceptable, the school isn’t keeping your daughter safe.

Yes you’re right to send her in with her own inhaler, she’s probably old enough now anyway to manage it herself but the school really need to sort their processes out

Why on earth is she having to go to the office for her inhaler in the first place. Ds had his kept by his class teacher, and they are taken outside by the lunch staff when he was too young to carry it himself. from about 8 he's been allowed to keep his own inhaler in his pocket, where he could get to it if needed. School has an inhaler as well just in case.

I'd be putting a complaint in writing about the loss and the inhaler policy, it doesn't seem like they understand asthma at all.

Dh was furious. He has chronic asthma and can go from alright to deathly in seconds.

So he will be going to the school personally and bringing it up.

Dd was quite upset when she got home from school because she felt she really needed it. We gave her some at home, and she was fine afterwards but she had to struggle the rest of the day.

She’s woken up this morning with her wheeze and cough so I’ve insisted she carries her own. Told her to tell them to ring me if they have problem

Sending her back to class is not on. You need to determine why, did they not think she needed or etc.

I would ask to see their risk assessment, we do cub scouts and decided that regular medications needed keeping away from children but epipens and insurers needed to be kept in sand place as the child to ensure they could take it on timely manner.

My child school has a box of inhalers per class (you are them being carried around at sports day and onto coach for school trips).

needs to be with her.

asthma uk have guidance / will advise you about taking it up with school. Apart from anything they can and should buy spare un names inhalers for this problem.

keep it with her - and a spacer.

however this is problematics because she is still only 9. The inhaler is safe with her. No one will come to harm who gets it / takes it etc.

the issue is even though she’s “ broken the rules “ she MUST MUST. Tell the teacher if she takes it - she still could deteriorate and needs to be watched / what ever. I think “ I forgot it was there and found it when I needed it “ would do 😂

This annoys me a lot. I think more children die of asthma than allergies so it should be taken just as seriously.

Def let your child have her own medicine.

If you can be bothered would actually raise a complaint on this.
Point out the school nursing team can give advice, asthma uk has good care plans, medicine and the school can buy its own emergency use inhaler too for instances where a childs own inhaler fails. You can buy disposable spacers.

This is completely unacceptable.

I used to be a school nurse around 8 years ago and asthma was something I used to pester my schools about.
Inhalers should be kept in the classroom and labelled with the asthma care plan. They should not be kept in the office away from the child.
Schools can order spare inhalers and spacers from a pharmacy at very little cost. Inhalers cost around £4, spacers around £8. They can be used in an emergency for any child with an asthma plan. If the school can't keep tabs on a child's inhalers then they need to look at buying a spare.
Complain to the Head or the school nurse that covers the school.

They played with your daughters life yesterday. I would raise hell.

I would report this as a safeguarding concern (and I run a school office).

I've never been completely happy about keeping them in the office, but it's because teachers aren't supposed to do "admin" (or first aid) and the record keeping is important, but losing it, not being able to give it as needed is not OK.

That's actually horrendous. I can hardly wait during the time I'm fishing mine out of my bag and I don't have particularly bad asthma. It's really painful.

Your poor DD :(

Thank you for all the advice.

I will definitely be taking this further and seeming advice from asthma UK.

I know they will be hot on it now too because we have a new head teacher and she’s keen to refresh the whole school including a new uniform scheme and logo.

Ds has severe asthma and I refused for his main inhaler to be kept in the office at primary school (he did keep a spare there) he had a big red bag which went wherever he did in school. Thankfully school where understanding (and suitably scared knowing his history!) that it wasn’t a problem.

he is at secondary school now so self carries his inhaler and then has a spare in the office along with his injection kit for another condition (emergency but not something school are expected to give just something they need to pass to paramedics)

Not sure that's necessarily a good idea. If she never accesses the one in the office, are they going to put it on the records that her asthma isn't that bad? And don't they need to know when she is sufficiently unwell to need it?

You need to point out anyway that if they are losing asthma inhalers, it should be a major worry for the school that they will lose other urgent and essential medications with potentially very serious consequences.

In my son's primary school they are kept in the teacher's desk in the classroom, not in the school office which is too far away.

You need to raise this urgently as a safeguarding issue. The fact that they just sent her back to the classroom means they do not understand the risk of a child with asthma and they should have risk assessments on it and a medicine policy. We need 2 people confirmation to issue medicine, I am sometimes the second adult as I take children up to the office for medication but not life saving stuff, more like anti-biotics/calpol.

This is literally deadly serious. My sister used to be hospitalised with her asthma, too many people don't know it kills.

Your daughter could have died yesterday, and the school's response was to shrug their shoulders at the lost inhaler and send her back to class. 😲

I wouldn't have sent her back into school today.

Way off the point, but why a new uniform and logo, FFS? It's just extra and totally unnecessary expense for parents, and the recent government guidance is that schools should if anything be moving away from logos and ensuring that buying uniform doesn't put a financial burden on families.

We had a bit of this with ds at primary school. In the end I just said he would have it in his bag. He was old enough to use it independently and knew when he needed it. She should not be going to the office to get it if she needs it they should be bringing it to her.

We were still allowed to buy from the local supermarket and could purchase logo separately to sew on if we wanted to.

My dc have got the new colour scheme but not the logo