Rebecca’s story:

When my son was approximately 6 months old he had a bad cough and he produced some spots of blood as he was coughing. I took him to my GP who referred me immediately to the A & E at the Whittington.

As this is my local hospital my child was born there so I was familiar with the place and I felt comfortable going there. We drove ourselves to the hospital. The journey took no more than 10 mins which meant I did not have to worry for an unnecessarily long time.

We were seen quite quickly and reassured that the problem was not serious and were home within approx 3 hours. I feel so lucky to live near to a hospital with an A & E facilty.

I have used the A & E at the North Mid for my child also as he had “pulled elbow” but the only reason I used this hospital was because we were shopping nearby at Ikea. It would take us at least 20 mins to get to the North Mid from my home, this would be massively increased if there were traffic on the very busy A10.

I actually feel a real sense of security being so close to the A & E at the Whittington, and would be very concerned if it were to close or run under reduced services.