"Night Visit to Urgent Care Centre"

After using the 111 online service I was directed to attend the West Cornwall Urgent Care Centre late last Sunday night. This service was easy to use and it did not take long to get a response. 

A family member took me to the Urgent Care Centre. There was a clear process, the receptionist was friendly and there was very little wait time to be seen. However, once I was seen by the nurse and then the doctor, I did not feel listened to. I felt like I was wasting their time, despite being unwell and being advised to attend. It did not help that I overheard the nurse discussing my case with another nurse in the next cubicle and her response was -for goodness sake-. I got the impression it was the end of shift on a Sunday and they were desperate to get home.

I agreed with the advice the doctor gave based on my symptoms however, he did not give me much chance to explain how I was feeling and instead seemed to be going through his own checklist to rule out anything serious. Also, I did not trust the thermometers they used as my temperature was 39.5C before the appointment and 38.9C immediately after but their thermometer said 37.6C. It's hard to believe there was this much difference in a short amount of time, especially as I felt like I had a raging fever which was my reason for attending. 

In future, I feel the most important thing for a good patient experience would be to feel listened too. Especially at the time I attended there was only a couple of patients being seen. It would have made me feel better if someone had said I'd done the right thing to get checked over when I was concerned.