"Overall we had a negative experience"

My son was admitted via A&E following referral by his GP. He had a history of limping on his right knee, swelling, fever and generally unwell. He had coryzal symptoms and associated elevated inflammatory indicators within his blood results to suggest infection.

He was triaged in A&E and was decided he would be fasted for theatre for a suspected septic arthritis. He was examined in the hospital ward and reviewed to find that he did not examine to suggest signs of septic arthritis. He was continued to be monitored by the orthopaedic staff and was commenced on IV antibiotic therapy for 4 days. His right knee pain, inflammation and redness reduced over the 4 days and was eventually discharged home on the 5th day with a course of two weeks antibiotics course to complete and further review at the orthopaedic outpatient department. 

We were let down on many occasions: 

At the beginning of shift changeover, staff did not introduce their role, if they were looking after my son and any updates from medical staff that were important to be shared. 

Nursing staff had administered a large amount of IV antibiotics via a bolus dose whereby my sons vein has already tissued causing extensive pain, swelling and distress. He was extremely agitated by this and was experienced abdominal and became very panicked and fearful of any staff coming to examine him or administer medication. 

On one occasion, he was cannulated overnight by support workers during the night whilst my son was asleep. They could not get intravenous access and after several attempts, staff successfully inserted the cannula. He was extremely distressed by this as he had been cannulated in his sleep - I was on my way back to the ward so his dad was with him and was unaware of processed to decide that wakening him would have been a better option. 

He is traumatised by this and does not accept any injections for example routine flu vaccinations. 

Overall, we had a negative experience with our stay having had minimal updates from nursing staff regarding their introductions as well as daily care from the medical team.