"No communication., coompassion or understanding"

My 10 year old was referred to GOSH by our local hospital for urgent surgery on a groin hernia.

Having spent 8 hours in A&E getting scanned and diagnosed this was scary but we thought this was a good move.

When we arrived in the ambulance (blue lights all the way) we were eventually seen by a surgeon who told us it wasn't what he called urgent and we could go home.

It then took over 3 hours to discharge us.

We left there eventually with the promise that we had been booked in for surgery on the 24th June which seemed strange as it was a sunday but were assured that was correct.

On the Friday before the surgery having heard nothing I contacted GOSH only to be told that the surgery was actually booked for the following Wednesday.

Operation day arrived and we followed the rules of no food after 6am and no drink after 10am. We arrived at 12pm for a surgery that was booked for 2.30pm. The nurses on the ward were friendly and reassuring for the first two hours, however at 3.30pm when we still hadn't been taken down to surgery suddenly they were nowhere to be found and when we did find them could offer no insight as to when we would be going down.

Two hours later at 5.30 when not having seen a single member of staff for two hours, we asked what time surgery finished for the day we finally met the surgeon who said that they were cancelling the operation as it was time for the theatre staff to go home.

The surgeon who had a "that's life" attitude to the fact that our son had starved all day waiting for the operation told us to go home and wait for them to get in touch about when we could go back in but that his own list was fully booked for 10 weeks.

He also told us that he was fine to go to school while we wait, having not bothered to ask us if he was attending school which he hasn't for 2 weeks as he is in so much pain when he stands or walks around. He then gave him a 2 second visual examination where the hernia was evident but still told us the only thing we could do was go home.

Being unwilling to wait indefinitely only to potentially have our on go through this again we have taken the very expensive decision to go private and so we asked for a referral letter.

In the letter the surgeon (who spent all of two minutes talking to us to tell us to go home) has apparently managed to ascertain that my son was not in any pain at all and there was no hernia evident.

Their response to our queries on when our son will become a priority was when the bowel becomes twisted and it becomes an emergency - funnily enough as a parent I am not willing to wait until my son is at risk of losing a large portion of his bowel to get this sorted out.

I normally fully support the NHS and our experience at our local hospital was brilliant.

At GOSH however we were met with indifference, and a complete lack of care or compassion and left feeling that our son's well being did not matter at all