"Excessive waiting times and not taken seriously"

I attended Wishaw General hospital A&E in early February as directed by my GP.  I arrived just before 2:00 pm and was triaged about 45 mins later.  I couldn’t walk and had excruciating pain on both legs.  I wasn’t seen by a doctor until 9:50.  

There were many people that sat for hours and then gave up and left.  I saw a young lad sitting with a split head for hours and they had to up and leave.  Another person I spoke with was waiting on his wife who had been brought in at 2:00 pm and at 9:30 he still didn’t have an update.  Another patient had been discharged on Thursday and was called by the hospital to come back it.  This lady also sat waiting for many hours and was only taken about 20:30.  

On seeing a doctor around 21:50 the first thing I was asked was what life or death emergency has brought me into A&E on a Saturday night. At this point I couldn’t believe my ears.  I asked them to check my medical records and they said they only wanted to know what brought me in that night.  I tried to explain that I hadn’t been near a doctors in many many years and I wasn’t in the habit of routinely going to the doctors.  They said the only thing they were looking at was whether I was at risk of life or limb.  If they had looked at my records they would have noticed the long length of time it had been since I last visited any doctor.

If it had been me on the other end I would quickly have deduced that I was sitting in front of someone that doesn’t just come to A&E at the drop of a hat and that maybe I had some cause for concern.  I sat for 8 hrs waiting, which is now what my biggest concern was.  I was more concerned about the number of people who actually left when they clearly required urgent medical attention.  The way in which I was spoken to was poor.  I felt that I was a bother to the doctor and the way myself and my symptoms were dismissed was poor, inconsiderate and unpleasant.