"Abysmal!"

Having spent 4 hours in Banbury A&E was told we needed to go to JR as the Dr's thought my teen son had appendicitis so we went via an ambulance. Once at the JR children's a&e minor injury dept we met a lovely nurse who was quite helpful and informative. We were told we need to wait for the surgeons and my son was prepped for a drip ad told not to eat (he had not eaten since the previous night as he was in so much pain). After 2 hours I had to be away from my son for a while, whilst I was gone a surgeon visited to examine him. On my return I asked the nurses if the surgeons had been to be told they were still waiting for them. Once back with my son he mentioned the dr who had examined him, when I again asked nursing staff they finally admitted a surgical member had examined my son but would return to talk to me. We sat around for an other hour or so with my son getting more hungry, at around 4.30pm I was finally told that surgical had transferred my son back to the medical team and it was the that we were waiting for and that my son could eat, yet no one had told us this or asked if my so would like anything to eat. My son sat for hours in pain just being topped up by pain relief from 12.30 pm till 5.30pm with no dr to examine, treat or explain what might be the cause of the excruciating pain he was enduring whilst other children were being rapidly treated by medical nurses and Dr's. Finally at around 5.15pm I'd had enough partly due to the lack of care my son was receiving in this department and due to my own ill health for which I'm prescribed strong medication and advised to rest lots, no stress, strain & to try not to go anywhere alone. At this point my temper snapped and I demanded that a dr see my son immediately by the time this happened we had sat in and A&E for over 9 hours. Finally there was a dr with some idea of medical care who set up a drug regime for my son, a scan appointment which means I will have to return to the JR tomorrow and a follow up appointment on Tues. If the staff had acted quicker the scan could have been done today therefore making tomorrow's appointment unnecessary. I feel the care that my son received from this department except from the nurse and a Dr was abysmal, absolutely disgusting, there was little to no communication between staff and certainly very little communication between staff and ourselves. A dr also informed me that my teen at 14 was old enough to agree to medical care, that would be ok if said teen knew what they were talking about as it is very rare he sees a dr at all. So no I would not recommended the JR's A&E children's minor injury dept after my visit today. So sad really when I can't stop praising the neuroscience, neurosurgery and neurology departments within the same hospital and trust.