Kettering General Hospital 2021-02-19 Person 1 5 0

I am the mother of a patient who attended the Accident & Emergency Department at Kettering General Hospital on Saturday 5th December 2020 at approximately 4.00pm. He had at the time severe Mental Health issues which led to him requiring an emergency appointment with the Crisis Team at Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust on Monday 7th December 2020. During this time I was supporting him as his carer. At the hospital, after explaining his distressed condition and that I was supporting him as a carer, I asked if I could accompany him in his medical consultation at the Accident & Emergency Department. At this point, I was told in no uncertain terms, by the Health Professional checking patients in at the reception desk, that this would be impossible. She said, in an uncompassionate tone, that they were not valid reasons. This left me with a feeling of sadness, for my son, myself and the patient service being delivered by Kettering General Hospital. I left the hospital extremely worried about the Mental state of my son. After picking him up from the hospital two hours later, I asked him how did the assessment go. He informed me that, on entering the consulting room, the Medical Health Professional was watching a football match on his mobile phone. I was horrified. I honestly thought my son was joking. This behaviour is totally unprofessional and .unacceptable. I am a patient representative/Involvee with NHFT and this was an extremely bad patient experience. I appreciate that we are in a pandemic, but i feel that lessons can be learned from this and I do not want this to happen to any other patients, especially when they are vulnerable. I have already fed this experience back via the feedback form on Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust website approximately two weeks ago.. I have yet to receive a reply.