"Innocent victim of random assault"

Anything else?

My son was taken to Kettering A&E department following an unprovoked assault as he was walking home with his partner. He was attacked from behind by a man wielding a heavy chain. The chain hit him on the head and knocked him unconscious. The police were called and they made the decision to call an ambulance. He was admitted to A&E at 05.01am on 14thJuly. Initially the police were busy taking statements. My son was asked by them to remove his clothes for forensic evidence. He was left with only his socks. He was given a hospital gown but he is a large man and it took until 10.10 am, over 4 hours, for him to be given something to ensure he was decent - and this was only because the hospital gown did not keep him decent as he was being prepared for a CT scan. Although he was admitted at 05.01 he was not seen by any of the medical staff until 08.50 am when his blood pressure was taken. Although it was high for a man of his age, it was not checked again, not even before he was discharged. At 09.10 he was put in a wheel chair and taken for an X-ray, only to return a few minutes later. Apparently he required a CT scan, not an X-ray. By this time the whole of the left hand side of his head was swollen and his eye completely shut. He was feeling nauseous and had a blinding headache. We had to go and find someone to ask if he could have some pain relief, which was finally given at 09.20. At this point, the doctor arrived and examined him. The doctor thought that my son needed a tetanus injection. This was never given. At 09.55am he was taken for the CT scan and told that the results would be back in 20 minutes. At 10.05 he was told that if he was discharged, he would not be able to go home in the hospital gown, despite the fact that he lives in Corby. This meant that someone would have to travel to Corby and back and then pay a second charge in the car park. We noticed that the white board in the department recorded when observations of patients were made. My son was recorded as being checked at 10.25 - what a laugh. It must have been done by an invisible member of staff. At 11.05 the CT scan results finally arrived, an hour and ten minutes after it was done. Thankfully, there was no damage but the doctor on discharging him, told my son to go Northampton A&E to have his eye checked as KGH did not have the facilities in A&E to do this. It took just over 6 hours to be told this. Why he wasn't directed to Northampton at 5 o'clock I don't understand as his injuries were very apparent. Not only was he very poorly treated during his 6 hour stay, the treatment was not completed. We appreciate that the department is very busy, but our experience today was of a department with absolutely no organisation, of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing and of a complete lack of communication between staff. It was appalling. It does not require more money to improve the service - a radical in depth look at how the department is run is what is required.