"Staff prejudice and attitude"

I took my mum to a hospital appointment for cancer treatment at Altnagelvin hospital recently.  She had two appointments scheduled, 2 hours apart.  We decided to go to the Crossroads restaurant in between these appointments for some lunch.  My mother stood in the queue for hot food and i went to the cold food section to grab some drinks.  When mum reached the counter to order food, the two staff members refused to serve my mum and stated that she was an inpatient so they couldn't serve her. When my mother told them that she wasn't an inpatient, they still refused to serve her and stated that was just the way it was. This was all said in front of everyone standing in the queue, which was quite long. 

I can only assume the reason why they refused to serve my mum, is because  she uses oxygen therapy when mobilizing, and was wearing nasal specs!?!

When I went to the 2 members of staff and asked, why did they refuse to serve my mum, they both just stood there and said nothing.  I went on to say that mum was there for an appointment and that they shouldn't just assume someone is an in-patient just because they are on oxygen. One of them then suggested that inpatients often lie about this. At this stage I was approached by a manager who worked within the restaurant and apologized on the staff members' behalf.  However, the two staff members made no attempt to apologies to mum and didn't show any remorse. 

This was a very upsetting and embarrassing encounter for my mum, who is already going through a very stressful journey being treated for cancer.  She is now also self conscious about wearing her oxygen!  Surely staff members working in a hospital setting, no matter what their role/ or level of patient interaction is , should have basic manners and common decency!