A mum has called for the end of text and phone G consultations for children after her daughter developed Strep A - but was initially given the wrong diagnosis in a text message. Laura Rooney has relived the horrifying moment her five-year-old daughter Farrah started to fall ill in September last year in a bid to raise awareness.
Laura, from Banbridge in County Down, Northern Ireland, said phone and text consultations should not be used to diagnose children after she was told Farrah's rash was due to antibiotics - when it was actually a Strep A infection. Farrah was ill from September through to December last year because of the Strep A bacteria, which led to her developing pneumonia in her lungs and an angry rash all over her body.
While Laura says she understands why phone consultations were introduced during Covid, and admits they may still be helpful for adults now, she said the practice of diagnosing children through the exchange of messages and pictures over the phone between a parent and GPs needs to stop.
Now that Farrah is finally starting to feel well again after her ordeal, Laura is determined to speak about what happened in a bid to make other parents aware, BelfastLive reports. Laura says she cannot help but wonder if Farrah had been seen face-to-face when she first started developing a rash, she may have been given the correct antibiotics to speed up her recovery.
Instead, she was told by a GP via text message exchanges that Farrah's rash was as a result of antibiotics and she should keep using them. Laura said: "Unfortunately by the time her rash had developed and it was wrongly diagnosed, it just spiralled downhill to the point where had to be admitted to hospital."
Farrah was sick from September through to her Strep A diagnosis in December last year, developing pneumonia in her lungs and a very visible rash over her body.
"I would like to call for the abolishment of diagnosing children through text messages, although I can see how it would be helpful for vulnerable people who can't maybe attend a group surgery," Laura said. "It just needs completely restructured to the point where more face to face appointments need to happen, but it's not completely all the GPs fault all the time."
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Laura said that she had wider concerns about the way the health system was coping in general in Northern Ireland, highlighting the detrimental impact the lack of local government has had. She pointed to the recent coverage of Northern Ireland's stalled transplant legislation as just one area where people were being let down.
"I felt relieved at the time when I knew Farrah was going to make an improvement, but my heart goes out to every child in Northern Ireland now, who's either waiting on an operation that's been cancelled because of the lack of Assembly," she said. "Or else who hasn't got the medication they needed because it couldn't be passed in the Assembly.
"The only way forward for our children here to improve and also for laws to be put in place for transplants to happen to enrich children's lives, is if the Assembly reforms.
"Unfortunately that's not happening at the moment, and I wonder do the Assembly feel for the 180 families that this is going to affect as a direct result of the Assembly not reforming (those waiting on transplants)."
Laura said that the changes recommended as far back as 2016 in the Bengoa report, carried out by Portuguese Professor Rafael Bengoa, which proposed drastic changes to the NI health service.
"Now that Farrah's recovered, I've gained enough strength and momentum now to make sure that no other child has to go through this as well," she said.
"And also to help the parents of sick children at the moment by putting more pressure on the Assembly to form to make the decisions, because nothing can be done unless they do. There's no blame to be put on the NHS here at all, it's the pressure that they're under.
"There's a desperate need for a restructure and reconfiguration as put forward by the panel for the Bengoa Report, so I'd be asking now that it's reviewed and as soon as the Assembly reforms again, that it's addressed."
Farrah has one more consultant appointment left and Laura is hopeful that she can put the last five months behind them and start to make some happier memories together as a family.
The Department of Health has been contacted for comment on this story.
