"An utter disgrace!"

What I liked

The fact that we eventually got out.

What could be improved

My niece was admitted as an emergency in the early hours of the morning over the weekend and we were shoved into the main A&E because the Children's Dept was not open. Three hours later, having only seen a nurse, we were moved over to the Children's ward. Three hours after that we were moved onto the Teen Unit of F1 and were utterly appalled by the treatment received.

The Teen ward is not single sex - directly opposite my niece's bed was a scantily clad young man of 17, something I found very disturbing. My niece was nil by mouth because they were unsure if she might need surgery (although how they could tell as they hadn't even done an x-ray at this point was a mystery) so she was eventually given an IV and told that we had to wait for a surgical consultant to see her.

At lunch time, one of the staff came around and asked my niece to complete a menu but that it probably wasn't needed as she was "going down to theatre" soon. Given that we had no clinical diagnosis, I was appalled at this offhand remark from one of the catering team.

After 8 and a half hours of waiting in the hospital, I asked for an update on progress as we had been told nothing and was then told that a surgical resident was seeing a patient and that we were next on the list - an hour later we were still waiting. Upon telling the ward staff that we were about to leave as my niece was now very distressed, a surgical resident miraculously appeared!

At this point, we were told she would need an x-ray and ultrasound scan and that the surgeon had to complete an operation then "visit a few other sickies" before coming back to us, but in the meantime they would monitor my niece's condition. The ward staff effectively ignored us for the rest of the afternoon. I had to take her for an x-ray at 1700 hours and when the surgeon returned at 1900 hours (14 hours after we had arrived) we were told surgery was not required and that we could go home

Anything else?

The entire experience was a farce - the staff on the teen ward were incredibly patronising towards us as we had the audacity to 'complain' and there was little or no communication between staff or us. My niece has been very distressed at her treatment (or lack thereof) and should we ever have need of emergency services, I shall most certainly go over the border to the Royal Surrey!!

And as a sidenote, may I also remark at how utterly disgusting the food was. After my niece was told she could go home, they offered her a dinner - a small jacket potato dumped on a plate with some cold soggy sweetcorn, a side order of two dried cream crackers and a dessert that tasted like mouthwash and had the texture of furry washing up liquid! Luckily she had missed out on lunch but I fail to see how a soggy sandwich, a bag of crisps and a couple of custard creams is a nutritious meal for a recovering child.

Shame on you Frimley Park Hospital...