"Very long wait in A and E"

I attended the A& E department at Wishaw General hospital yesterday after falling and my ankle swelling up and becoming extremely painful. I was booked in by reception staff then had to stand for approx 30 mins as there was no available seats in waiting room. The waiting room itself was dirty, cramped, cold and had broken seats! I sat for 4 hours without being triaged so asked for an update and was told 8 in front of me. I sat for a further 4 hours - still nothing! After enquiring again the lovely receptionist apologised and informed me that minors were closed! Having sat for that length of time I decided to wait it out.

Eventually I was seen by a nurse and given pain relief and a drink (both requested during my wait as I had not brought any with me boy assuming my wait would be 8+ hours to even be triaged). I was sent for an X-ray - had to hobble round myself in pain - X-ray department was locked and I couldn’t get in. Eventually a porter came and let me in but moaned that minors shouldn’t be sending people round (the nurse in minors had called the X-ray dept in advance!).

I then get told to return to minors and sit for a further hour with nobody even looking near me. I enquired with one of the orthopaedic drs as I needed to get home at this point as my partner was going out to work and I had nobody to care for my 7 month old daughter (bearing in mind I’d been there from early evening and it was now creeping closer to 4:00am). The dr told me I wasn’t and orthopaedic case and my care was nothing to do with him… so tough I guess!

I went to the nurses station upset as I was very stressed about getting home in time and nobody was seemed willing to help. The nurse looking after me was just returning from her break and said she could look at X-ray straight away. I was discharged with a splint (that’s too big) and an apology. This is 100% not the staffs fault although I do think a little more empathy and understanding could be shown at times but my experience was horrific.

Can I suggest wishaw A& E firstly sort out the waiting area. Proper seating, access to water, heating or blankets, information sharing (if I had known minors was shut prior to waiting so long I’d of probably opted to come back or attend another A& E).  Secondly if minors is shut due to not enough staff it is completely unacceptable to leave sick and injured patients with no pain relief and no support. I was alone, in pain, thirsty, hungry and nobody cared and I wasn’t the only one. I am beyond disappointed with what I witnessed last night, not just for me personally but for the many patients that had hours to wait in pain, hours to wait for beds in the waiting room which is an awful environment, hours to wait with underlying health conditions and the the relatives that were arriving to the department before the ambulances bringing their loved ones and being left in the dark!

NHS lanarkshire must do better, or if it can’t, tell patients this and offer alternatives!