"Staff attitude went unchallenged"

I went into Oldham A&E with a family member - we were seated in the children's section and it was understandably busy. As the evening progressed it got busier. One lady who was there was one of the original people in the waiting room - her daughter had been vomiting almost every 15 mins but no one had attended to them or even given her a vomit bowl.

I finally asked one of the nurses to help this lady and her daughter, to which the nurse came and threw a bowl towards them and left - completely ignoring the struggles of the lady trying to clean up the sick from the floor. In the end, both myself and a couple of other parents started delving into our own handbags for some tissues so she could wipe her daughter and the floor. The daughter looked to be in shock but was ignored by the staff. The mother went up to staff a few times asking if they could give her daughter something but she was dismissed each time.

What really shocked me was when handover took place that evening. One staff member who came on was obnoxious right from the start. When the lady asked her for help, this staff member literally snapped at her and speaking loudly so everyone could hear, gave her a telling off. The attitude was rude and nasty.

What was interesting is that literally a few mins later another lady went up to the same staff member and asked the same question - to this lady the response was polite and answered without the whole room needing to hear. Throughout the evening I observed this staff member's behaviour and what seemed very obvious to me was that this was racial discrimination.

The first lady was black and softly spoken with basic English. This bigotry was observed by more than one of us sat in the waiting room - but it went unchallenged. It was so upsetting watching this lady being treated this way and her daughter being left to suffer without help for hours. They are there to deliver care to people of ALL colour and races.