Hospital Festival circuit VIP, originally uploaded by DragonDrop.

So we are now in the Paediatric Neurology department in Leeds General Infirmary. Left Harrogate District with a bit of a sour taste in our mouths after a strange outbursts from a ‘new ‘ (to us) doctor who said that we weren’t supporting them. Shame that we left on bad terms after what was by and large excellent care up until that point. How can 24 / 7 attendance and thanking them for everything they are doing – and making our Jaygo go through so many treatments with our blessing be construed as unsupportive? I don’t know. We were also told that jay would have to go on continuous IV and wouldn’t be able to leave his room for the duration and this was starting in one hour, so just as Eirene had got him ready for a last wheelchair ride round the block they said no – he can’t go out as they needed to start treatments. That was when the doctor accused us of not backing them up, and actively going against their treatments. Not quite sure what to do – complaint letter to the trust – pfft – I’ll just blog my thoughts and hope someone in the Harrogate Health Trust does some googling. It was either them being flat wrong or them not communicating what they mean effectively (genuinely don’t understand why he (Dr. G) should have said that, what was hoping to get out of it, or what his motives or even his inspiration was) – either of which are failings. No win situation.

I have never been to LGI before. Its a massive hospital. Part of the move is because he wasn’t making as speedy a recovery as had been hoped and that the consulting specialists are here already. I voiced this idea as it made sense about a week or so ago, so if he is here they can observe and react in real time. We are also looking at a lumbar puncture later in the week and that will be done here. So far so good here. The nurses I’ve met are really nice. Had a bit of an altercation with a doctor though who wasn’t respecting his meal time – wanted to interrupt his meal to take blood which I think is wrong. I know they are busy and have a lot of patients to see but food is massivly important and its hard work for him enough as it is to keep food down. He just cried about the iminent pain, and that they wouldn’t leave him be for another few minutes peace to finish his tea. I asked for a few minutes, and after a bit of huffing and puffing she left us for 5 minutes. He got most of it down though and to be fair a blood taling window had already been deffered earlier in the day. But still, she could have left him for a few mins more. Hay presto, he had lost his appetite after the blood taking. Luckily he had finished most of it thanks to the 5 minutes huffy puff. Patients should not suffer for a doctors inability to schedule their tasks around mealtimes. Upset both of us. Anyway – apart from that we have had a quite nice afternoon. Been onto the rooftop garden – stunning views across Leeds skyline – panorama on my flickr stream. Got a nice room with a window and its peaceful.

I don’t want to be in a position where I have bad feelings about the NHS – I love the NHS and am utterly thankful for it but speaking as someone who has seen a lot of change process in the commercial sector – I look at this abstractly and think there’s some fundamental bits that need a tweak particularly in comms flow / workflow concepts. Nurses are brilliant things but doctors perhaps need to be given the time, productivity training or tools – something around that area – that they need to work properly – which involves not interrupting a sick childs meal time unless absolutely necessary for said childs health and well being.