"Exhausting"

What I liked

Polite staff but long waiting queues.

I had to go to a hospital and get an x-ray on my foot yesterday as it has been more than 10 days since I spraind my ankle and the swelling hasn't gone down completely yet.

Everyone was very polite from the receptionist to the nurse practitioner to the x-ray specialist. They explained what I had to do, where to go, etc.

What could be improved

The waiting is too long. The number of people I saw waiting when I arrived wasn't great, but it still took more than one hour to be seen.

While waiting for the x-ray, I was next to go in and waited for my name to be called. When I realised they were taking too long, I went and asked only to be told someone had jumped the queue. I understand it may have been an emergency to x-ray that other person first, but it would have been nice if they let me know that I'd have to wait a bit longer.

There is no orthopedic doctors on staff after 5pm. This means that to get a definite result from the x-ray, I have to wait a few days. They will only call me if there is a fracture and the results will go to my GP. So I won't really know for sure if my ankle is fractured until end of Monday! (no call=ok)

I'd actually prefer it if there was a way of notifying patients even to say it's ok, for peace of mind. Maybe put a button in the application they use that will send a text message to the patient's mobile phone to say something along the lines "Good news. Your ankle is not fractured. Dr {Name Surname}, Charing Cross hospital".

Anything else?

All and all the quality of service and the attitude of the staff is good, but the waiting times could be improved as well as having an orthopedic out of hours or at least notifying patients of the results regardless, so they won't be worried they missed a call.Waiting timesAttitudeEmergencyServiceX-rayOut of hoursX-rayConsultantsNursing staffReception staffText messagingFracturesTelephoneDoctors