"Mixed A&E Experience"

I have been seen twice at Ninewells A&E after injuring my foot. I felt I was seen in good time the first time, having to wait for only 2.5 hours which is understandable given the triage system. I feel that I could have been offered a way to elevate my foot while in the waiting room and there was no way for me to get water.

The staff were friendly and efficient, but the waiting room was dirty and ill kept. I witnessed two waiting patients with bleeding injuries disposing of bloody swabs in the general bin and there was blood on the seat next to me. One man told staff his daughter had been sick on the floor and was told that it would be dealt with eventually.  He had to come out a second time to ask for a mop and bucket himself and only then did staff seem to view it as something that needed dealt with.

I was subsequently asked to return by a radiologist a couple of days later as a break had been missed on my X-ray. When I arrived at the time I was given the reception staff had no note that I was expected and it made me feel quite upset really, like I was wasting people’s time.

I want to be clear that every staff member I interacted with was kind and doing their job. I think the system they are being asked to work with leaves absolutely no room for compassion and the general care that could have made an emotional and painful injury more easily dealt with was not provided (for example a clean and welcoming waiting room, knowing I was in the right place as I had been asked to be, a water fountain close at hand as I was not mobile and had to ask one of the other patients there to fetch me some water from radiography area).