"Terrible!"

Monday 12th October at 18:00 hrs my son had a seizure at home.

999 was dialed immediately and we were told the ambulance was on its way.

50 minutes later, yes 50 minutes, a 'fast responder' arrived, a lady who to her credit was great.

10 minutes later a St. Johns Ambulance arrived that had traveled from Durham!

It is my understanding that in a fitting situation, and in a child especially, the ambulance should arrive within a 15 minute response time?

No offence guys but when i dial 999 I expect a swift response from a crew that is local and NHS not a charity!

This was just the start, we arrived at the LGI and then proceeded to wait 4.5 hours while other less serious patients were seen and discharged (one being an sprained wrist).

At 23:30 conscious that my son was fully recovered, we asked for an update on the waiting time and were told that with would be quite some time yet and that on advice from 999 operator he should not eat or drink, that he needed to eat. At this point we thanked god that it wasn't a heart attack or equally serious condition and we gave up on the NHS.

The duty nurse commented when asked that it was a quiet night so I question why other less serious patients were seen first? Is this because NHS figures are being massaged?

I also question why staff were quite happy to chit chat about holidays when patients were waiting to be seen.

Very shoddy, a child has a seizure at 18:00 and still hasn't seen a doctor some 5.5 hours later.

so much for the golden hour!

The NHS has let me down before but this is unforgivable.

I will be making a formal complaint.