"My little boy was referred here by the out of..."

My little boy was referred here by the out of hours GP at Loughborough Urgent care centre because he had been vomiting for over 48 hours without keeping solids or liquids down, and was quite dehydrated.

We arrived at 5pm, by which time my little one was semi-conscious, were greeted by a surly receptionist, seen by a very nice nurse at 5.30pm who did initial obs on him, and she put us in an 'Assessment Room'. At 7pm, junior doctor, who introduced himself and told me he was a GP (but he could have said JP, I don't know, but you can't expect your average parent to know all the hospital abbreviations surely) came, and asked me questions and did further obs.

He said the Senior Paediatrician would decide what treatment to give, and whether or not the situation merited doing bloods and possibly intravenous liquids.

He was very nice, very reassuring, and told me the senior doctor would be in 'shortly'. At 8pm, a nurse came in and told me to give him 5ml of water every 15 minutes for an hour, at which point she would return.

She never came back, and neither did anyone else.

After an hour and a half, I went looking for her.

What I can only assume was the Ward Sister, but didn't introduce herself, told me brusquely she was 'off the ward'.

That was it. At 10.30pm, my parents went looking for someone.

They found her in the corridor, relayed that my son had had 30ml of water, and was asleep.

She said ok and told them he was 4th in the queue.

She did not come in to check him or do his obs. At 11pm, I went looking for someone again, found a nice nursing assistant who went to talk to the doctor, came in and took his obs, and left, saying the doctor would be in 'in a minute'.

At 11.30pm, I went and told the Ward Sister (?) I wanted to sign the form to take him home.Thus ensued a conversation which I overheard between her and the doctor, who offered to come and see my son, in which the Ward Sister practically threatened him/her, saying that 'you can do what you like but if you do they'll all do this'.

She came out and refused to give me the form, saying the dr. wanted to do bloods. At this point we had been in the hospital with a dehydrated child who had been vomiting for 48 hours, for 6 and a half hours, and they had done nothing, and told me nothing. I asked for the doctor to see him.

I was told, yet again, that there were 3 other patients in front of us.

We were not even given a blanket for him.

When I pointed this out, I was told 'we don't just hand blankets out, you know! You have to ask!' Ask who? not a sould entered my son's room in four hours. They were hostile, uncommunicative, inefficient, and totally without compassion.

Save for the nurse and the original doctor. I took him to Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham in the end, and they were fantastic, without fault, despite the fact that they were busy.

Shame on you Leicester Royal Children's Assessment Unit!!! I will formally complain.