"Grateful for care of our dehydrated baby"

My baby had gastro recently and we live rural, after five days of trying to get enough fluids into our baby we presented to our local hospital. Unfortunately there was no doctor available and the nurse consulted with the GP on the phone and decided to send us on to Perth Children's Hospital. We arrived just after lunch after a lengthy drive and waited a couple of hours to see the doctor.

During the wait time I could see the staff were doing everything they could to manage the busy workload and they opened up another holding bay to try and get things moving quicker. When we saw the Dr Jayne she was very reassuring and informed us that our baby would need a nasogastric tube for re-hydration. The nurse and doctor were both very competent and did this unpleasant procedure quickly and efficiently. We stayed in the Short Stay Unit for a number of hours and also found the staff there pleasant and reassuring. The treatment our baby received improved their condition significantly and we are very grateful to have this service available to us.

My only suggestion would be that there should be a place dedicated to breastfeeding and expressing mothers in the Emergency Department. My baby was refusing to breastfeed due to their illness and I needed to express. I had travelled all morning and when I arrived I had to wait another two hours to express when we were allocated a cubical with a power point. I feel this negatively impacted on our breastfeeding relationship.