"The doctor went out of his way ..."

What I liked

The doctor went out of his way to help - I had been mugged and treated badly by police, ambulance officers and the admin staff at the hospital. The doctor took his time with me so I didn't feel like I was a burden, and he went beyond the call of duty in lots of ways.

What could be improved

The nurse who initially saw me was unhelpful and acted like she was doing me a huge favour by organising a phone call to my next of kin. I hadn't been able to speak to anyone since being mugged, about a hour and a half before that and she acted like I was trying to call a hundred friends for a social chat.

Unbelievably, I sat in the waiting room (after seeing the nurse) for around 3 hours with a broken nose and massive swollen face, without even an ice pack. My sister ended up making one out of snow outside. After seeing the doctor we tried to get one from a nurse (who was well inside the consultation rooms and who the admin staff wouldn't call for us) who told us they don't have any icepacks or anything like that to give me. Less well stocked than a school nurse.

Anything else?

The admin staff in A & E were the worst - they were sitting around at 4am reading mazagines and filing nails and resented doing any work at all. They resented us asking for cups for the water machine. When I asked to use a phone to make a free call to Lloyds TSB to cancel my cards which had been stolen in the mugging, the woman said dismissively and snidely 'I don't think we can call 0800 numbers from these phones'. There was no pay phone in the place. My sister said that she has worked in lots of government offices and can call those numbers, and then specifically said 'can you please try?' The woman dialled and of course it worked, she then very rudely and spitefully handed the receiver to me. The security guard was also completely unhelpful - had no idea what we were asking for when we were trying to find a phone. Wouldn't even sit up straight in his chair, which came across as if he couldn't care less. Aside from the doctor (and the cleaner in the women's toilets who was apparently very accommodating according to my sister) the place just oozed resentfulness, arrogance, and a total lack of patient care. Not the kind of people you need when you're in shock after being assaulted and robbed.