"Car Parking and Signage"

My mum in her eighties had  a CT appointment at ENT. We joined the queue for the car-park off the west link and sat in the queue for 40-50 mins - I knew the queues are often horrendous, leaving people late for their appointments.

I saw people who were being driven to the hospital get out of cars to walk as it was quicker. I even saw staff having to walk. I got into the car-park and spent 15 minutes driving around trying to get a space. We were late for the appointment and I'm sure other people were late too. I phoned the Dept in advance to inform them we would be late and they understood. 

Quite honestly, this is totally unacceptable. I could clearly see people getting stressed with the long wait - we did !!!

I don't imagine I'm the only person to complain, but my concern really is for elderly people like my mum and also emergencies.

I do hope that something can be done to alleviate this terrible situation. 

Also the signage and letter instructions are terrible. This was for a CT scan and we were told to come to the CT Dept on a Floor 2, but the appt was in the X-ray Dept. On a previous occasion with my mum at RVH, we spent over one hour looking for the clinic room, and 3 staff didn't know where it was either.  Finally I asked for a wheelchair for my mum and the porter eventually found the clinic room after 30 mins.  

However, I must emphasize all the staff are very helpful and lovely, but the hospital services and infrastructure are diabolical and not fit for purpose, in my view!! 

Finally, there is a relatively new £150m hospital in our home town of Downpatrick and yet we have to travel over an hour to Belfast with someone in their eighties to access medical services.

I think it's absolutely disgraceful, NHS !!