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"not good"

About: Cumberland Infirmary

I attended and spoke with the receptionist to whom I explained that I had come off my cycle and had possibly broken my collar bone - I had my affected arm in a makeshift sling. The receptionist began typing what I presumed were some details and while she was doing this I asked how long the wait would be as I had responsibility for getting my daughter from school later that day. The receptionist asked that I wait till she finished typing then told me that I would probably be seen by a Dr within 2 hours and a nurse within 30 minutes, (the sign said 4 hours) I thanked her for this and I was asked to take a seat. While waiting, the department got busier and I heard the receptionist asking the new patients for more details than had been asked of me. I therefore joined the queue again and when I spoke with the receptionist again she told me that she had not booked me in as she thought I just wanted to know the waiting time so another ten people were now in front of me in the queue. Totally frustrated I told the receptionist to "forget it, I told you that I had fallen from my bike and broke my collar bone". I then collected my bag and went to leave only to be subjected to the receptionist accusing me of shouting at her drawing also the attention of the ambulance staff gathered in the reception room. I had at no time shouted at anyone so felt quite humiliated by this. It is my opinion that this was all caused by the receptionist not doing her job properly. Why did she not ask for my details? Why did she ask me to sit down and wait if she had not booked me in? At no time did I say I did not want to wait and after my initial encounter with the receptionist I was asked to take a seat and was clearly visible to the receptionist so why did she let me sit there knowing that she had not booked me in? As I have not used A&E in 30 years I am not familiar with the procedures but I would have thought it would be the job of the receptionist to explain the procedures to me.

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Responses

Response from Cumberland Infirmary 2 years ago
Cumberland Infirmary
Submitted on 20/08/2021 at 15:25
Published on nhs.uk at 18:00


A recent audit of the Trust responses on this website has identified that we did not receive your comment and therefore have not been able to respond in an appropriate timeframe. This was beyond our control as we have only recently been given the access to enable us to respond. Please accept our apologies for this error.

If you feel that you would still like a response to your comment please resubmit your feedback and this will be dealt with immediately.

Many thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts and again, apologies that we failed to respond at the time.

Best regards,

Alison

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