"Emergency eye appointment"

I had an appointment recently at the Eye OP clinic. It was an emergency appointment and I had been told it would be busy so I had no problem with having to wait.

My concerns are as follows:

1) I saw no staff member either wash or gel their hands during the duration of my time there (over 2 hours - most in the waiting area). This also included the staff who attended to me both nurse and doctor. In our current climate where every member of the public visiting the department was asked to gel their hands I felt this was not acceptable.

2) There were a lot of elderly patients there and they were given little assistance, no water and it was not obvious that there was any water available for anyone to drink

3) On being taken through to the doctor it was very clear that they were busy as at the start of the consultation the doctor was trying to make a phone call. They didn't have the correct number and went out then someone else came in without knocking to give the number. Another member of staff entered the room, no apology for the interruption, dropped something on the floor and then took it out of the room unwashed, uncleaned (a similar item was used to put a lens on my eye for examination). The doctor doing my assessment did not at any time wash or gel their hands and the doctor was examining my eyes. I didnt feel fully listened to at the start of the consultation - the doctor kept speaking about the wrong eye and I had to correct them. The doctor then got the details of my emergency optician appointment wrong even though I had just informed them when it had been. And then got the day of the start of symptoms wrong again even after I had just told them.

I understand when a department is busy staff can be distracted but I feel that if they need to make calls, access equipment from other rooms this should be done before a patient is taken through and/or knocking on a door when a consultation is taking place is not acceptable. They also need to pay attention to the details the patient provides them with during the consultation as this is the only time that patient will have with that member of the healthcare team.

I feel that my management and discussion around the issues I was having were treated very lightly as if it was an inconvenience for me to be there. I did not feel information about the diagnosis was given that well - it was almost as if it didn't matter. Well it does to me!

There was one nurse who I felt was professional and caring working that afternoon