Thomas's Experience as a Father accessing healthcare on behalf of their children - Part 2

My first child was born in 2022. Um, and about eight weeks later we had to take him to, um, A&E. We, we came across a bruising on his foot, but couldn't put it down to anything in particular. Um, so took him into A&E, uh, and because he was classed as an immobile child, um, they put us on the safeguarding list and

Went through the whole medical protocol and safeguarding protocol because of the vulnerability and age of of him. Um, it meant that my wife had to stay overnight for 4 nights at the hospital, partly because she was also breastfeeding, and I came every day and and sat with them and and supported them during that time. Um, I remember vividly um being questioned about my status

In regards to uh my son, even though my wife was visibly present and, and it was pretty obvious as to who I was, um. I also remember them putting a catheter. Sorry, a cannula in my son's hand, but not actually um taking bloods or um

You know, using it, it had no purpose and it sat in his hand for pretty much the entire duration. And I challenged and questioned a particular nurse on this, and they said that they would take it out and they didn't. And after about 5 conversations with various different healthcare professionals, they eventually took it out because they didn't need to use it

But I felt like that there was no patient centred care, um. Taking place at that time and I I felt like there was a lot of judging and questioning, and we ended up having a social worker come in and have a conversation with us, um. And they said that it was case closed, no issues at all

And um it turned out that my son had um low vitamin K, even though he'd been given various injections when he was born. Um, for some reason, his vitamin K level was low, which caused the bruising, and actually the bruising was caused by him, um. Uh banging his foot against the baby changing unit, which at the time I hadn't really attributed to that

So in some ways the process meant that we were able to understand that there was clearly a deficiency in his system, and they were able to top him up. But I remember the social worker saying it was case closed, and then, um, all of a sudden we got a phone call a couple of days later saying she'd like to come and visit our house. Uh, I was like, OK, um, so they came and visited our house

Looked, looked at the baby changing unit, which pretty much most households have looked at our house, asked us a load of questions about us and said, I have no concerns. Um, and I, and whilst I recognised that it was a protocol and that we're doing their due diligence, um, it was quite frustrating, particularly as a new parent, that, um, all this time and resource had gone into uh us and my son. Uh, which was well-meaning and well intentioned, but my concern really was how many of the children were slipping through the net who genuinely needed help

I recognise they don't know who we are, and we're first time parents and we've got a brand new, newborn baby, only 8 weeks old, but it really did make me question. Um, some of the decision making and and the lack of listening that took place, particularly for me as a dad when I'm standing there and you know, I'm 8 weeks into the role and um still unsure about what I'm meant to be doing and I'm getting quizzed left, right and centre about all sorts of things and didn't feel like I was being listened to.