"A&E"

My disabled son was referred via consultant to consultant between two hospitals.

On arrival we registered and were told we would be seen by the specialist dr.

It was not explained to us that we had to go through the whole A&E system.

The streaming nurse could clearly see we were angry but kept say “that is fine” when clearly for us it was not.

She then asked us to move to a different area where she would put in a cannula and take bloods.

We sat and waited but this nurse never returned to do anything.

After 30mins my son enquired at another nurses station as to what was happening.

He tried to explain what had happened to him but struggled so called me over to assist him.

The sister on duty clearly disliked this action as she bluntly told me that my son was a grown man and could speak for himself.

My son then said that he gave consent for me, his mum, to be included, this prompted the sister to state that my son did not have the problem that he had been referred for.

I reminded the sister that this was a consultant to consultant referral and therefore one would assume they would be qualified to make that diagnosis.

She then made a derogatory remark regarding the referring hospital.

She clearly did not believe what we were telling her and demanded to see our referral letter.

She actually told my son that if he had been referred he would have had a letter.

This sister caused my son great distress and on my part a huge amount of anger.

My sons disability is not visible but it is as the result of a serious head injury following an RTA when he was a child.

Our saving grace was the intervention of an A&E registrar.

After he had been seen by the registrar of the team he was referred to my son sat and cried.

From start to finish Northampton A&E treated my son and I dreadfully.

We had no idea we had to go through the whole system and nobody had any empathy for what my poor son had already been through.

We were just told by our referring hospital to report to NGH as an emergency.

We were not given a letter as we were assured that the referral would take place as we travelled.

As was confirmed by the specialist department my son was an urgent referral and was admitted for Iv Abx and surgery.

Not one person including that dreadful sister, who’s attitude implied we were lying, felt the need to apologise to my son.

This dept should hang it’s head in shame, to treat anyone in such a manner is bad enough but someone who is disabled and frightened. Disgusting.