Harry's Experience as a Father accessing healthcare on behalf of their children

Harry shares his experiences of fatherhood and accessing healthcare on behalf of his children.

His particular experience focusses on having to take his poorly daughter from a local community hospital to another hospital within Lincolnshire which had more clinical resources available. Harry talks about having to entertain and look after their daughter in A&E and the challenges associated with that, but goes on to talk positively about the medical staff at the children's ward the care his daughter received to make her better.

Transcript

Hi, I'm Harry. I'm father to two girls aged 4 and 1. An occasion that springs to mind where I've accessed healthcare with my eldest daughter was when she was quite poorly. We attended our local hospital which unfortunately they didn't really have any facilities to be able to help her, so we were referred to the Lincoln County Hospital, which, as in most circumstances when you're referred to the A&E there because the local hospitals have all been closed down

Everyone's referred to the county hospital, which makes the services there particularly overwhelmed. Um, so therefore that made it particularly challenging because there's lots of people all waiting for the same thing. And when you get referred there last minute and you turn up particularly unprepared because of the situation, yeah, you're just expected to cope regardless of whether you're a mother or a father, um, you're expected to

To make do um with the long delays and keep your child entertained and end up being prepared, as there's very little facilities there to keep them occupied. Um But I would say I wasn't particularly treated any differently as a father as to the mothers that were there as well. uh, but once we were in this circumstance referred to a ward, um, the rainforest ward at Lincoln Hospital, they were very good and

I just got on with the process and the nurses there were very helpful and fortunately we got her treated quickly and Effectively, and we were there for a short period of time. And it was a good result, um, but other than that, um. Everything was, was reasonably positive