A Northumberland mother has described a "nightmare" journey and a "feeling of helplessness" after being unable to get medication for her sick daughter.
Rachel Curtis' five-year-old daughter Betsy fell ill with a virus in late November and continued to get worse to the point where her mother took her to the walk-in centre at Ashington's Wansbeck General Hospital on the night of Sunday December 4. Due to Rachel's oxygen saturation levels being low, staff recommended that Betsy was taken to the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle.
It was initially suggested Betsy travel by ambulance, but with an hour and a half wait for an emergency ambulance, Rachel chose to drive instead to the RVI, where Betsy was given an inhaler before being sent home. Rachel said: "There were signs up saying it was a four - six hour wait, there were kids everywhere and the staff looked broken.
"The staff were brilliant though. I don't know how they do their jobs under that sort of pressure but they were amazing with Betsy."
While any parent would be worried if their child came down with a chest infection, especially with the current strain of Strep A being reported, it is particularly worrying for Rachel and her husband Marc. Betsy has bronchomalacia, a congenital problem which causes cartilage below the trachea to collapse more easily, while she also has Down's Syndrome, which can cause her condition to deteriorate extremely rapidly when ill.
Rachel continued: "We've nearly lost her so many times to respiratory infections. There are loads of things that mean her lungs are her weak point and she can deteriorate really rapidly because of her Down's Syndrome."
So the couple were understandably worried when Betsy became "more rattly and crackly" by the morning of Wednesday December 7. Rachel called the local GP in Lynemouth as soon as it opened but was only able to get an appointment in Morpeth, much later in the day.
As soon as the GP listened to Betsy's chest through a stethoscope he prescribed clarithromycin, which she immediately travelled the nine miles back to the pharmacy in Lynemouth to collect - only to be told it wasn't available. Not wanting to "drag Betsy around" with a chest infection, Rachel dropped her at home with dad Marc then went to Ashington and Blyth where she was again told by both that they were out of the antibiotics she needed.
Rachel enlisted Marc and parents to call around local pharmacies, with them not managing to obtain clarithromycin as far south as Gateshead, and north as Amble. She called 111 and says after at least 40 minutes on hold, was told she'd be called back.
Feeling she had exhausted almost all options, Rachel returned to the walk-in centre at Wansbeck General Hospital at 9pm on Sunday, an hour ahead of its closure at 10pm. She claims that she was told Betsy, who had been put to bed by this point, would have to be brought to see a doctor and that her medicine couldn't be exchanged, or she would have to go the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital (NSEC) in Cramlington.
She decided against taking her sick daughter to the accident and emergency there, feeling that getting her out of bed to sit in a room full of other ill children where she could catch another virus as "the worst thing I could have done." Instead, she went back home and waited up until 1am for 111 to call back - which they eventually did at 2am when Rachel had fallen asleep, exhausted from stress and anxiety.
She continued: "I can't get the medication I need and I can't even see a doctor and I just thought, there's no healthcare in this country anymore, it's gone. You just feel completely helpless and really frightened, what are you meant to do in that situation? I exhausted every single avenue."
Thankfully, Rachel's parents found a pharmacy in Ashington the following morning where she was able to pick up a bottle of clarithromycin. She says that the previous night, she had driven to four pharmacies in freezing conditions where she unable to get the medication, and estimates that between her, Marc and her parents they had contacted between 15 and 20 pharmacies before finally getting what Betsy needed.
When Rachel spoke to ChronicleLive on Friday morning, Betsy was feeling much better, and Rachel said: "Betsy's picked up today and the antibiotics have definitely kicked in, she's feeling a lot brighter and hopefully this will be the road uphill now.
"I dread to think what will happen if she deteriorates and we need to go back into hospital, going back to the RVI or NSEC with the waits at the moment would be horrendous." The full-time carer puts her "horrendous" experience down to Government cuts, and says that she doesn't blame NHS staff at all.
She finished: "I really want to add that I don't think this is the staff's fault at all, the NHS staff that I've seen over the past week have been working at about 200% of their capacity, flat out in the most horrendous circumstances. They all look stressed, they look broken and they're still trying to provide the best possible care that they can.
"These people have gone into these jobs to help people and to heal them and they're being prevented in doing their job by the Government and it's not their fault. I've worked all my life, I've paid my taxes to have an NHS and I don't think the Government is spending them on the NHS."
The Department of Health and Social Care responded when asked about Rachel's situation and if there was a shortage of clarithromycin in the North East: "Suppliers have clarithromycin, however we have seen surges for products and increased demand means some pharmacies are having difficulties obtaining certain antibiotics.
"We are working with manufacturers and wholesalers to expedite deliveries and bring forward stock to help ensure it gets to where it’s needed, to meet demand as quickly as possible and support access to these vital medicines. We are prioritising health and care services with up to £14.1 billion available over the next two years, on top of record funding to address the most pressing issues facing the NHS this winter as a result of the pandemic, including improving urgent and emergency care."
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