"Communication could be improved"

Feedback - Communication from staff to patients could be improved.  

Context - I very rarely, if ever, have had to attend hospitals before so raising this poor experience for development and improvement opportunities for staff. 

I attended the UTC with a relatively minor injury in comparison to a number of other patients attending that day. However, I attended to confirm my injury didn't require stitches, further treatment beyond basic first aid and to get the best possible information to treat this at home (and therefore not adding to extra unnecessary footfall to A&E). Throughout my experience, the level of communication from multiple staff members was poor:

- Was not advised of the current estimated triage/waiting time on arrival.

- Was not triaged - mentioning this as I'm unsure if my injury required triage or not and if I did, then this should be recorded.

- I felt repeatedly fobbed off when I expressed my concern at the waiting time (politely of course). For context, I fully appreciated how busy the centre was that day and knew to expect a fair wait. However, each time I requested an update for an approx waiting time after 90 minutes or so, I was told a different version of that I couldn't be waiting much longer or I was next yet watched numerous patients get called in before me. This was frustrating so I approached the desk again to ask for a realistic timescale so if I was told there would be a considerable wait e.g. another hour or two, I could have made an informed decision and sought medical advice/treatment elsewhere; rather than me sitting in UTC for 3 hours (arrived after 5pm, called in to be seen after 8pm). 

- The member of staff seeing/treating me did not introduce themselves (no idea whether they were a Nurse, GP or HCA).

- Seeing me was rushed and they couldn't get me out the door quick enough which meant they failed to tell me how to appropriately treat my wound and what complications to watch out for once discharged e.g. infection signs. I had to repeatedly ask for this information which was unacceptable. 

I also had to request an additional bandage from staff working the front desk for another patient, as I could see droplets of blood starting to form through a makeshift bandage. I felt this should have been noticed and provided on their arrival. This patient ended up sitting there for a considerable length of time and could have ended up dripping blood on the waiting room floor. 

Reporting this as I felt standards could have been better on this occasion. Just a gentle reminder for staff to not let standards slip for lower priority patients please.