"Awful wait times"

My son had been ill for a day or 2 with severe vomitting and sore throat. As he had struggled to keep down liquids my local pharmacist called 111 on my behalf and I was immediately advised to attend A&E, with them asking how long it would take us to arrive. 

We immediately attended and the initial assessment went well. What followed was a wait of around 5 hours, by which point he was keeping down food and water, but I was still concerned he may have tonsillitis. Had it not been a weekend I would have called the GP for advice instead. I initially expected 111 would send us to Out of Hours rather than A&E, but I felt obliged to follow their advice.

During our wait a senior staff member asked people to go home if non urgent, but no one appeared to leave. Another parent and I were confused by this as we had both been requested to attend A&E. Surely a better approach is to look at individuals' reasons for attending and directing to other services if non-urgent.

We eventually saw a doctor who was very helpful and as expected they prescribed antibiotics. I still feel this was a total waste of our time and the doctor's, who probably deals with this on a regular basis. 

It's also an awful experience with a young child to have them in A&E for this length of time, ill and bored with the graveyard of broken toys. If you are going to urgently ask people to attend A&E, can you at least have the resources available or make us aware of the wait time in advance?

Most frustratingly the other parent and I that were asked to attend witnessed various other children arrive after us being seen before us for minor injuries! 

I can't fault the reception staff who were very patient and informative when I asked where we were in the queue.

I recommend you crack down on individuals attending with non emergencies and request that individuals leave rather than giving a blanket message to all.