"paediatric - awful!!"

took my daughter to A&E today and the waiting time was horrendous but usually to be expected...but the horror came when my daughter was admitted upstairs the the paediatric assessment ward. do you think in the 5 hours she was in the ward upstairs I could ever find a nurse? nope. none. It was like a run down ghost ward! The girl in the bed next to my daughter had been In pain for 2 hours and the nursing staff (when one was unwillingly collared) would simply forget to come back with pain relief. If you desire a hot drink you must venture along one corridor to the adjoining ward...which to my amazement was buzzing with so many nurses I lost count! and there was a hot food trolly...was my 4 year old daughter, in the ghost ward, who had been sat in new cross for 7 hours, and the other children in the ward who had been there just as long and even longer, offered food?? nope. would it really be too much for 1 nurse to stroll on to the paediatric assessment ward and see if any children who wernt nill by mouth were hungry? why does the hospital cater for the admitted but not the ward of assessments? I stood stranded outside the door to the ward for 9 minutes, waiting (preying) for someone to stroll past and let me and the 2 other fed up parents In...but in those 9 minutes I saw the amber light which is above the door to one of the wards flashing (when a child has called for assistance) and it went unattended. was that child distressed? in pain? needed the loo? who cares...obviously!! why and how has this ward; that I remember from my childhood to have been full of people, friendly staff, even an open play room, become so desolate? its horrific!! I am appalled and upset that such has happened to a ward for children.