"Awful experience"

Anything else?

Took my son to A&E on the Weds evening with a toe injury that had become infected. After waiting over 4 hours we were told in no uncertain terms that we shouldn't have come to A&E and it was "people like you that make it so busy." We didn't even get to see a doctor but a nurse prescribed antibiotics and told us that it would "get worse before it gets better" so don't rush back. 4 days later the out of hours GP sent us straight back to A&E where (thanks to the A&E doctor we saw who spotted something was amiss) it was found that there was a fracture and a bone infection. I was informed that if we had left it any longer my son could easily have lost his toe. As it was, he was admitted for 4 days, had to be on an IV drip for antibiotics and had to go under general anaesthetic to operate on and drain his toe. Although I can't praise the nursing staff on the children's ward highly enough, as well as the doctor's in A&E and the surgeon, I feel we were seriously let down by the A&E nurses who made a very bad judgement call and were dismissive about something that should have been referred for X ray so that was caught earlier. An experience I wouldn't wish on anyone.