"My experience was very positive"

I had an accident at home, where I fell over and cut my ear on the pedal of a bike. The gash in the cartilage looked deep and was bleeding heavily. My wife phoned the out of hours service and we were advised to take me to Altnagelvin A&E. I arrived at 9.00pm and was triaged at 10.20pm. The waiting area was quite full.

The triage nurse very friendly and efficient. I was worried that I was wasting people's time and that my injury was too minor to me seen at A&E. The nurse cleaned the wounds and quickly reassured me I wasn't wasting anyone’s time and that a doctor would need to look at the wound. She immediately called a duty doctor who quickly assessed the damage. The doctor explained that the wound was deep and by its nature would need to be reviewed by an ENT doctor. She then smiled and said there was one already down in A&E who might look at the injury straight away. She rushed off and quickly returned with the ENT doctor. He asked my how the injury occurred and examined it. He concluded that I would need stitches and a tetanus injection. He told us he would test the injury was soon as he can. 

When he left the triage nurse explained that I would have to wait probably an hour in the waiting room before I was treated. So I returned to the waiting room. 

Sure enough just over an hour later I was called back into the treatment room by the ENT doctor. He explained again that I needed stitches and the tetanus injection. Due to the nature of the injury I would need my ear frozen/numbed by receiving injections around the area of the injury and that they be sore. He was going to give me stitches that would need to be removed after 7 days. 

At this point I explained that I was going on a foreign holiday in 2days time. The ENT doctor then reassessed the situation and said he would now give me dissolvable stitches and an antibiotic as I was going to a foreign country and they would minimise the risk of infection.

When he started the treatment he explained every stage. For the application of the stitches he called in the duty doctor, who must have been an intern doctor. She administered the stitches under his supervision. 

After receiving the stitches, the ENT doctor covered my ear with the plaster. He explained that I should keep the wound dry and put waterproof dressing on the wound if I’m near water. I should not put my head under the water of the pool until 5 days from now. He told me to get waterproof dressings from a pharmacy. He gave me spare ordinary dressings and a couple of dressings I could use as waterproof dressings as a last resort if I could not get ones from the pharmacy. A nurse then came and gave me my tetanus injection. She was very friendly and explained what she was doing as she did it. The ENT doctor visited me again explaining what I needed to do to keep the injury dry and infection free. A nurse then quickly arrived to give me my antibiotics and painkillers to take home and I was discharged. 

I cannot speak highly enough about the way the way I was treated in Altnagelvin’s A&E - from the receptionist who took my initial details, to the triage nurse (who said goodbye to me when I was leaving and wished me a good holiday), to the 2 doctors that dealt with me, and not forgetting the nurse who gave me the tetanus injection. My experience was very positive and the staff in the hospital should be commended for how effectively they carried out their duties in a pleasant and friendly manner. Unfortunately I did not get the names of anyone who attended me. 

Thank you.