"Appalling A&E treatment"

Anything else?

My father has lung cancer and was sent into Good Hope hospital by his district nurse.

On arrival the ambulance men had to stay with us in the corridor for 1.5 hours because there was no one for them to hand over to. When finally we were handed over we spent another 1.0 hour in a different part of the corridor. Eventually a doctor came and too my father's details, blood pressure etc then we were assisgned a A&E nurse. This nurse was extremely unapproachable, any questions we asked she answered as if we weren't suppose to be asking. She didn't put my extremely frightened father at ease at all and told us they wouldn't have a bed for him until 7.00 am the following morning. After 5.5 hours we were extremely irate as no one had told us any results of the blood test, xrays or if he could take his medication so we caught the original doctor for answers. She finally sent over another junior doctor to speak with us and tell us what we already knew. They did get my father into a bed by 12.00 midnight.

The A&E nurses may have a lot on their plate, and they may know alot about the technical side of caring, but they are missing the main ingredient, care, they treat the patients like they are idiots when all they are is scared and need reassurance. What an absolute farse no wonder more people are going private.