Last night in A&E shook me up tbh. I know that black people's - especially black women's - pain isn't taken seriously. But the callousness of the nurse at reception who had watched my mum limp towards her in agony... She didn't give a fuck and insisted my mum couldn't be helped.

She also sought to blame my mum for her own pain? "Are you SURE you've taken the painkillers correctly? You have to do it every 4 hours."

We had to fight just to get into the fucking A&E waiting room. Where she left us for hours, knowing the pain my mum was in.

I had to flag down a doctor walking past and make him do something. He (a white south african ) fobbed us off like "oh we're busy". It wasn't busy.

There was not an ounce of compassion in his voice. Meanwhile my mum is weeping with pain.

But then, as if by magic, A&E was suddenly not busy because he came back 2 mins later and got my mum to a doctor asap.

God must've pricked his conscience.

You see how you have to advocate for yourself as a black person in these institutions? Because your pain is immaterial to these ppl.

If I hadn't grabbed him we could still be there waiting to be seen ffs.

After mum went through to be seen, i noticed another black woman in front of us. She flagged down the SA doctor too. She said she was having chest pains and needed relief. He said cruelly "why didn't you take something before you came here?"

What a nasty man tbh.

He then said he'd get her some paracetamol. But like wow... a black woman is having chest pains at 4am in A&E and you're blaming her for it? Would he do that to a middle class white woman?

Honestly I do not feel safe in the NHS after last night. These people seem to enjoy black suffering.