"I was seen fairly quickly, treated..."

What I liked

I was seen fairly quickly, treated respectfully and my condition and next steps were well explained.

What could be improved

After being advised by NHS direct that I needed immediately to attend A&E, I drove myself there to save the ambulance service's resources, but on arrival I had to drive around and queue up for a quarter of an hour looking for a parking space!

I found all but one of the car parks were full and had queues of cars waiting for a free space to become available. The only free spaces in the one car park that let me in, were reserved for disabled blue badge holders, so I had to leave the car park again and queue up for a different one.

How appalling that the hospital does not have the capacity in its expensive car parks to receive patients admitting themselves to A&E. Is anything being done to remedy this problem?

I had to move between different parts of the hospital and it was often not clear where I had to go. The medical staff at A&E and x-ray seemed to lack an awareness of the fact that patients are not familiar with the the procedures and departments with which they engage when visiting the hospital.

Though friendly enough, the staff could do better at explaining to patients where they need to go next, how to get there, and whether to simply wait, or whom they should see if they need to speak to someone when they get there.