"The reception staff both in A&E ..."

What I liked

The reception staff both in A&E and Primary Care, they try their best to be helpful and are always very kind and polite, especially when you are attending with a small baby as I was.

What could be improved

Comunication and compassion to parents of a small child who are worried about their child, whether the health care professionals deem there to be a problem or not, parents should be treated with kindness and respect, not treated as though they and their child are an inconvenience and actually wasting the doctors time.

Anything else?

I attended with my 8 month old baby boy after spending 2 days with a very unsettled and clingy little boy. He is teething so I sensibly waited 24 hours or so to see if he settled down. I contacted the GP and made an appointment for 4 hours later but was informed that if he deteriorates in any way to take him straight to A&E. I checked his temperature and it was 36.7, although he was extremely hot to touch, more so on his head, neck, chest and back, but his feet and hands were cold. He was very clingy and upset, just not his usual happy self. I took the decision to take him to A&E. The triage nurse saw us and confirmed that his temperature was now 37.5, she did not think it was anything to worry about, but said she would refer us to primary care. I asked if we could be seen in A&E as primary care was always packed and I was worried my son would come out with more illnesses than he went in with. She said she would get a doctor in A&E to see him as it would only take 5 minutes. We were moved into the Department to wait in the children's area outside the cubicles. Approximately 40 minutes later we were shouted and told to follow her out of the department, she said the consultant had told her to send us to primary care! I told her we were very unhappy as we had already been there an hour but she said the consultant had told her to send us there. The receptionist on primary care (who was extremely helpful) said she had checked with A&E and was told we were sent to primary care as we were an inappropriate attendance to their department! There was one doctor in primary care who was also running a DVT clinic and the wait could be some time. The receptionist moved us to the front of the queue and 2.5 hours after first attending we were seen. I am disgusted with the way we were treated, no attendance to A&E with a small child should ever be deemed inappropriate, by the time we were seen our son was very upset and distressed as were we.