"Careless, uncaring and negligent staff at..."

Having been urgently sent to Whipps Cross Hospital by my GP for chest, fever, high BP and a huge absess; the staff which immediately face me were unhelpful. Having shown a letter from my GP which stated she had spoken to the on-call Orthapaedic Surgeon who advised to send me over immediately and will be expecting me; I was ignored, the letter ignored and no effort to contact the surgeon was made. Instead, I was faced with the most rudest receptionist who a) sat in front of me chewing gum like it was going out of fashion b) repeatedly told me to sit down despite knowing that I was unable to due to the huge abscess c) didn't want to hear the circumstances or read the urgent referral letter d) was more concerned with showing their fingers to a colleague than helping me. The receptionist was probably having a bad Monday morning, but no need to take it out on suffering patients. The most annoying thing of this ordeal was when I was finally seen and the urgency noticed and expedited in front of the receptionist; the receptionist shrugged and carried on chewing gum. The first point of contact/first response in a hospital should be decent not sub standard and rude like this horrible receptionist.