To go to A&E

[Mushroo]

I’ll preface this my saying I’ve never been to A&E in my life so I’m absolutely not a habitual user, and very much in the ‘don’t waste resources’ camp.

However, my daughter has developed a swallowing problem. It started around March as coughing when she ate.

We’ve seen the GP who started out saying her chest was fine, it’s just viral.
We’ve seen a private respiratory doctor who thinks it’s asthma, but steroid and inhalers haven’t helped.
Weve seen an NHS paediatrician who did a chest x ray, she had a chest infection which antibiotics cleared up, but the cough when eating has gotten worse.

It’s got to the point this week she can’t eat at all without coughing / vomiting.

We’ve been referred to a speech and language therapist but the waitlist is at least a month.

Im so worried as she can’t eat comfortably and there’s no pathway to help at all for months. I’m worried there’s something in / wrong with her oesophagus, would going to A&e be wrong?

I can’t sit and watch her vomit everyday for at least a month

Do you have private health cover or can you afford to private?
I'm sure they will miraculously find time for your daughter soon if so.

I would write to PALS about your appointment being cancelled and pushed back so far. They might be able to help, but of course there is no guarantee.

This sounds like a really stressful time for you, its frustrating how there is a lack of joined up thinking between teams to try and get you an answer ASAP.

I'd also ask whether you can afford private? We did this a couple of years ago when my son had very worrying symptoms, and we were able to book appointments with senior consultants within a couple of days, by phoning up the local private hospital. They're often the same people you'd be seeing anyway via the NHS. Initial appointments were generally two to three hundred pounds. Could you maybe see a private ENT consultant and maybe pay for a private bronchoscopy? You can always then transition back into the NHS system - you don't burn your bridges. It's depressing that it's come to this, but here we are...

Thanks all, I kicked up a fuss with PALS and they’ve miraculously found a phone appointment for us this afternoon!

We do have private health insurance, but we’re using that for a gastro scope in a couple of weeks (to see if it’s EoE or reflux).

It was basically weighing up which is a longer wait on the nhs and the Dr said gastro is far worse than ENT.

So basically we’re doing gastro privately, and ENT via the NHS (assuming we actually get referred today 🙄)

Hope the telephone appointment was helpful @Mushroo

@MikeWozniaksMohawk thank you! It was helpful in the sense we are now getting the referral to ENT, but not much else!

But, we have gastro scope next weekend (privately) so at least we’ll either get an answer or rule some things out…

How did the appointment go op?

My DC has a different issue to yours, but our ENT waitlist is 14 months so we went private for a diagnosis and surgery.

I don’t know where you are in the country but please me know if it would help to give you the names of the private consultants we’ve seen, as many don’t see kids under 3.

Has she sealed something that has got stuck? Toddles swallow all sorts of things. Although I would think a foreign body would have shown up on x ray?

Swallowed*

@Iocainepowder were in the NW. If the wait time is that long I’ll definitely go private so might take you up on that!

@Toddlerteaplease the a&e doctor suggested that, but apparently it wouldn’t show on an x ray necessarily depending what it is. So that’s what ENT will hopefully look for when we finally see them!