Travelling for Surgery Family Feedback Form Please take the time to tell us about your experience of travelling outside of Northern Ireland for children s cardiac care. We will use this information to help us represent parent and family needs. All feedback will remain anonymous unless requested otherwise. Section 1. Your Family 1. Which surgical centre were you and your child required to travel to? (Please Tick ) Evelina Children s Hospital Birmingham Children s Hospital Our Lady s Children s Hospital, Crumlin Other 2. How much information did you receive on this surgical centre before travelling? (Please tell us where this information came from) Did you find this information useful? (Please Tick ) 3. What type of procedure was your child having at this surgical centre? (Please Tick ) Cardiac Catheterisation (cath) Open Heart Surgery MRI Assessment Other 4. Was your child s procedure a planned or emergency procedure?
5. How long did you and your child need to stay in hospital outside of Northern Ireland? 6. Who else travelled with you? E.g. partner, spouse, friend, sibling etc. Section 2. Travel and Accommodation Outbound journey from Northern Ireland 1. How did your child travel? (Please Tick ) Commercial Flight with parent/guardian Private car with parent/guardian Ferry with parent/guardian 2. How did you travel? (Please Tick ) Commercial Flight Private car Ferry Inbound journey to Northern Ireland 3. How did your child travel? (Please Tick ) Commercial Flight with parent/guardian Private car with parent/guardian Ferry with parent/guardian 4. How did you travel? (Please Tick ) Commercial Flight Private car Ferry
5. If you travelled by air, was there a taxi arranged to pick you up from the airport and take you to hospital? (Please Tick ) If yes, was the taxi prepaid and on time? If no, how did you get to the hospital? 6. Which accommodation had been booked for your stay? 7. Do you think this was appropriate accommodation for parents? If no, please state your reasons why; 8. Where you happy with the travel arrangements made for you to and from the surgical centre you visited? (Please Tick ) If no, what could have been done to improve your experience? Section 3. Reflection 1. How much contact did you have from CHILDREN S HEARTBEAT TRUST whilst you were away? Was this contact too much, too little or just right?
2. Did you find being away from home was expensive? (Please Tick ) Roughly how much do you think you spent on necessities per person, per day? (Please Tick ) Under 10 10-15 15-20 20-25 25-30 30+ 3. Did you apply to HScB for reimbursement upon returning to Northern Ireland? (Please Tick ) If yes, how long did it take you to be financially reimbursed? (Please Tick ) Under 1 month 1 2 months 2 3 months 3 4 months Other 4. Did your family receive any financial support from Children s Heartbeat Trust? (Please Tick ) If yes, it helps us to know how beneficial this financial support is so we can continue to offer support to families travelling outside of Northern Ireland for Children s cardiac care. Please give some examples of how this financial support helped your family; 5. What do you think could or should be done to improve parent and patient experience of travelling outside of Northern Ireland for children s cardiac care?
6. If you could offer one piece of advice to another family preparing to travel to a surgical centre outside of Northern Ireland for their child s cardiac care, what would it be? Any other comments; Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us. Children s Heartbeat Trust works to provide practical and emotional support to families affected by heart disease in Northern Ireland. For more information visit www.childrensheartbeattrust.org Registered Charity Number: NIC102410 Please return your completed feedback form to Cathy Dalton at; cathy@childrensheartbeattrust.org or post to Children s Heartbeat Trust, Howard Building, HF12, Twin Spires Centre, 155 Northumberland Street, Belfast, BT13 2JF