"Rude and disrespectful staff at Rotherham General Hospital- A&E and Fracture Clinic"

My son recently fell and broke his foot. He was taken to the A&E by myself (his mum). First impressions- the receptionist was lovely and helpful and very friendly.

Unfortunately- the nurses and doctors there could learn a thing or two from the receptionist. We waited to see the doctor, who straight away came across as very unprofessional, making no effort to engage with my little boy or make him feel at ease. After lots of confusion, the consultant finally told us to go to the Xray dept, not bothering to explain where this was. We eventually found the Xray dept, and while we were there, the doctor from A&E came over to us and said that once we had finished in Xray, we needed to come and find them in A&E. When I asked where they would be, the doctor simply said "I don't know, I have other patients to see, you will just have to find me". The Xray staff were the complete opposite- very helpful and friendly and really cheered my son up. When we returned to A&E and eventually found the doctor (after asking the kind receptionist to help), we were told to go to the waiting room. The doctor then came over and said that my son had a "suspicious area" on the Xray, and that he would need a cast on. The doctor then walked off and I had to run to find out WHEN exactly he would need this cast on. The doctor replied "Oh, he needs it on now. Someone will do it". So, eventually we left A&E feeling annoyed and completely let down by the very rude, unprofessional doctor.

The day after, we then had to take my son to the fracture clinic, where again we suffered an abysmal service from very rude and miserable nurses who made no effort to interact with myself or my son. They did not explain any of the procedure and just expected us to automatically know what was going on and where we should be going. The doctor was extremely rude to both myself and my son (who is only nine years old!).

Whilst my son was having his second cast put on, instead of reassuring him, the nurses preferred to talk between themselves about a colleague that they didn't like. I found this extremely unprofessional. Once again, no explanation was offered as to where we were supposed to go or what we were supposed to be doing- it was as if they just expected us to know.

Finally, when my son went back for his cast removing, we were greeted with the exact same nurses and doctor, and the exact same rude behaviour. When we went in to see the doctor, he just seemed like he really couldn't be bothered to deal with us and offered no advice. I had to prompt him to actually speak! When my son asked the doctor to point out his fracture on his Xray, the doctor replied "Oh, you won't be able to see it, there's no point showing you"- Whatever happened to just a bit of kindness and manners? Realising that we were unlikely to get any further help from the doctor (seeing as he had failed to say another word), I asked "Is that it?" He simply replied "yes". When asked what I should do with my son's crutches, the doctor replied "It's up to you. Take them back to the plaster room if you don't want them"- I told him that we had just come from there and the nurse there had told me to bring them to the doctor, at which the doctor just looked at me. He didn't even acknowledge us leaving.

I am astounded by the rudeness of the entire team in the fracture clinic, not to mention their unprofessional attitude and just plain lack of manners. Even my nine year old son behaved better than the staff in that department. I am astounded at the very poor treatment that we received, not to mention the three hour wait past our appointment time. The staff really need some sort of training in how to deal with patients.