Credit where credits due…..

The last couple of weeks have been really good in terms of Danny and his development.  He is really starting to blossom and become a real personality now and has many a person laughing along with him.  Having had a great time over Christmas and new year with being able to get out every day on account of me being more available this has now changed as I am back at work.  What this has meant is that Julie and Tom have had to rely on the WRVS for transport to her aunties for Dan as she has been told that she cannot take him on her own on a bus as there is no second person.  We have been told that it is not satisfactory for her to rely on another passenger or the bus driver to call an ambulance in an emergency situation should one arise for the 5 minute journey.   This has caused a great strain as the WRVS have not been available to book since they started trying to arrange this with them after New Year which has meant it has been left to the odd day that I can make it or if Julie’s cousin can take her out.  This is not a new situation as this was the case before Christmas and a number of people at the hospital keep saying “we need to sort something out” however nothing has ever been sorted out.  This has meant that Julie is left having to choose between which child she spends time with as it is unfair to expect Tom to hang around in a hospital all day and Dan simply can’t get out.  This week we were due to meet with the Primary Care Trust (PCT) who are funding Dan’s discharge however we were told earlier this week that due to unforeseen circumstances they would have to cancel.  So I called the person that had emailed Julie and discussed the situation and explained our frustrations with the whole discharge process , lack of updates with regard to progress and the fact that Danny was ready to be discharged in August yet he probably will not be going home until March/April at the soonest.  I also went on to discuss the current frustrations with getting out each day so that they could spend time as a family.  I was pleasantly surprised when I was immediately told that the PCT will fund transport out 5 days a week to get some “normality” for them which was just amazing, such a small and simple gesture had just helped to make the whole process more bearable.  Shortly after this we concluded that call and I was told that they would call again the following day to update me and confirm whether the meeting would go ahead.  As promised I received another phone call to say that the meeting would have to be postponed but that they were still pursuing the transport issue.

This morning I called as usual to see how Dan was and to ask if the hospital could book the WRVS for Julie and let her know if they would be able to provide transport.  Unsurprisingly Julie called me mid-morning to say that the WRVS would not be able to provide transport as the hospital could not get through to anyone so she would not be able to take Dan out.  However, at lunchtime she called me again to say she’d has a call from PICU to say that “they” had arranged with the PCT to fund transport out each day for Danny so they could all be out as a family.  This was really great news and Jules is made up……but you know come on guys credit where credit’s due.  What they have spent months “trying” to do was sorted out between my new friend at the PCT and myself in a matter of minutes.  With the process being so simple how hard did anyone actually try?

One a closing note; many, many many thanks to the PCT we really appreciate the help