"unbelievable"

What I liked

The nurses have more experience than the doctors on Children's A & E and are advising them!

What could be improved

It would be improved if the children's A & E was not run by junior doctors. Senior doctors are nowhere to be seen and only appear to have an input at the end of a phone line.

Also why can't children's blood tests be done by finger prick like Alder Hey?

Anything else?

It all started in June 2008 when my 8 year son had a rash that didn't go when doing the tumbler test, so took him straight to A&E. The male nurse said it was nothing to worry about and then the young male doctor consulted with senior Dr but then we mentioned he had nose bleed and the biggest bruises on his shins. He didn't relay this extra info to senior Dr and instead just said to return if a fever developed.

If he had ordered a blood test like our GP did the next day, he would have found out that our son's blood had seriously low platelets and the 'rash' was spots of blood under the skin which had leaked from capillaries and is known as ITP. There is a risk of internal bleeding.

On another occasion when the rash had returned in 2010 a young Dr was trying to take a blood sample and was poking the needle in all directions in his arm which resulted in a bruise so big it went to the back of his elbow.

On the most recent occasion in Dec 2011 our son was asked to return to A&E for a blood test. The young male Dr asked me to hold the vials for him as he didn't have a nurse to help. I asked if they were busy and he said right in front of my son "we lost a child in resus". We normally wait for the result but he seemed to say that he had done his job and was washing his hands of us. We agreed to go home if they would phone with the results. After phoning every hour we were finally informed that there was a problem with the blood and they wanted us to return! I remember he used vials with a green and a blue lid whereas at Alder Hey they use ones with pink or red lids. We didn't return, we went to he haematology treatment centre at Alder Hey instead as you actually get to see a consultant haematologist.