"Larbert A&E"

We arrived at A& E just after 19: 30 on a Tuesday. The department was reasonably busy, but much less than half full. We asked if we could go the children's waiting area with my daughter, but I felt the receptionist should have told us it was there as if this had been our first visit we wouldn't have known about it.

It was fairly full because parents were with children, but again - there were not many patients and I believe that injuries were minor in the main. My daughter has fractured her arm and once she was seen we were in and out in less than 15 minutes, including the x-ray. It did not require a 4 hour wait and it was clear from the start what was wrong with her. She was in pain, shattered and hungry and was left to sit in a hot, noisy waiting room for the entire four hours. While we were there the other children were mostly all there for those 4 hours too, with a one in one out process finally happening after around three hours.

There appeared to be no staff, but when we went through to the cubicles there were at least three nurses chatting at the nurses station. It appeared that at least half of the cubicles were empty and while we were there, we did not see any emergencies arrive. The doctor told us to go back to the cubicle when we returned from x-ray but the nurses tried to direct us back to the waiting area. I feel like it was a horrible and avoidable experience for my distressed and traumatised daughter, who wasn't even offered pain relief.