"8 hour wait"

My wife had an eye infection - optician gave urgent referral to eye hospital. We arrived at 3pm. We waited patiently with our 1 year old child. By around 6pm, we were still waiting to be seen. Some members of staff said it wouldn't take long but others said we were way down the list. My wife got to see the doctor at 11pm after an 8 hour wait which was very difficult given the stress of her situation and also the baby kept crying. The communication in terms of updates was poor. I was told this is an A&E department so there was no way to tell how long it would take. They didn't give us any indication so what I expected would be a few hour wait was in fact 8 hour wait. I explained to the doctor who said he is overworked, not slept for two nights and doing 40 hours. During the appointment, doctor had to leave for an emergency and that took 30 mins. We left the hospital at 11:30pm pharmacies were closed so could not get the prescribed eye drops till the next day. I felt traumatised by the long wait - it caused us a lot of stress even in the days following it. If this is the state of the NHS, it is deeply concerning.