"The system is broken!"

After my daughter had an incident and couldn’t walk in her foot, we followed guidance and called NHS 24 instead of attending a&e. 

We waited on a call handler, then a nurse, then received a call back to go on a video call with virtual a&e advanced nurse practitioner (almost 5 hrs after the initial call was made). After this, we were advised an x-ray would be required and to attend our local minor injuries unit at RAH - no appointments are available at this hospital but as it was local we attended a&e.

Upon entering a&e, we were triaged by an extremely rude nurse, who told us this isn’t a children’s hospital, I was well aware of this & when I told her we were sent here by nhs24, she stated“they always tell you then, now you know for next time. We then spent 3 hrs in the waiting room before being seen by a 2nd nurse practitioner who finally sent us for an X-ray! Which showed a small fracture on my daughter’s foot and we left with a moon boot. 

Roll on 2 days later. we receive a phone call from a consultant telling us her foot doesn’t have a break at all, it is in fact a common issue with kids growth plates?!  What is going on?

I have so many questions…

What is the point in virtual a&e and NHS24 if we were to attend a&e and go to the back of the Que again? Surely, we could have went directly to X-ray? Is it any wonder people attend a&e first for accidents rather than waste time with NHS 24. 

Why were we sent a hospital that clearly isn’t suitable for children? After a misdiagnosis & the rude triage staff?

Why after waiting for 3 hrs, were we not able to have someone who is suitably qualified to look at this X-ray for a diagnosis? It may be minimal to some, but my daughter was extremely distressed after being told she would need a moon boot for 4-6 weeks, all for nothing?

I understand the immense pressure a&e services are under, hence why we tried to use other avenues to get support. However please remember A&E stands for Accident & Emergency! When someone has an accident that may or may not be life threatening they should be able to attend their local a&e and be treated with dignity and respect, no matter what. from my experience, NHS 24 is a waste of time so it’s no wonder people may misuse the services. Time to sort it out!