"Nurses and Health Care Assistants were amazing"

We attended the paediatric A&E with my son who had a bad case of croup along with tonsillitis at around 23:30. We were seen by nurses and HCA’s relatively quickly and they monitored my son regularly after giving him a dose of steroids to help his croup.

We were then waiting for around 3-4 hours with an exhausted, upset and very unsettled 19 month old, just to see a Dr. There was only 1 Dr available, and upon observation there were other drs coming to talk with the one on shift, but never saw any patients in the waiting room.

I understand the stretch the NHS is under and that staffing can always be an issue, and it was not majorly busy in the department, however 1 Dr was not suitable for last night.

We eventually saw the Dr and he asked some questions and then examined my son who had only just fallen asleep. The Dr had to check his throat, which I understand had to be done which resulted in my son waking up. He advised he would be sending us home with some antibiotics for tonsillitis as there are a few puss spots on his tonsils.

We were then left in a cubicle with a hysterical 19 month old whilst waiting for a prescription. After a further 45 minutes of waiting I approached the front desk where 2 of the most amazing and helpful nurses were and asked if they knew anything about my son’s antibiotics. They informed me that the Dr hadn’t said nothing but they would call him back and sort them out so we could get my son home to bed. Another 30 minutes passed and the nurse brought them down to us and apologised profusely for the Drs lack of communication. We eventually got home at 6:30am.

My husband and I can’t fault the nurses and HCA’s attention to care and level of hospitality as they were phenomenal. My only issue is the Dr’s lack of communication which left us waiting for an unnecessary amount of time. Please pass on my thanks to all the nurses and HCA’s, we would have been lost without them last night!