"Poor response to broken back"

I recently fell backwards into a sharp cornice in the corner of my kitchen and could not move. I lay on the cold floor for 1 hour, managed to pull myself back into the living room and passed out. I was then fed painkillers by my husband through the night and in the morning we called the ambulance. From the minute I got into the ambulance I was in shock - the poor staff had been abused my the previous client, cried and laughed with me - I was at this stage on laughing gas - and I tried to console them whilst thanking them.

Then I was left in A&E for hours- I cannot remember how long - and given more and more pain killers. Finally a doctor - not a spine specialist - ordered a scan of my hips, found no break there and sent me home. Yes I was sent home with a broken - actually crushed - S3 and S4,

I am a mother of two children and my work requires trips in and out of London and being able to stand. 

For the next week, between pain killers and tears, I had to learn about my own injury - found that spine can only be diagnosed by MRI - and then beg for one through my GP surgery. I called daily, and finally went into the surgery and kneeled on the floor sobbing. At which point an appointment was finally scheduled. 

12 days later I was back in, and finally had an MRI. This showed that I had crushed both S3 and S4.

Ironically at that point the staff were telling me not to move, that they may need to operate - but that actually as I had been out and about I had likely already done the damage.

I am not going to go into the psychological trauma here - that will not serve a purpose.

However, on my visit again this Friday with my daughter who broke her finger and after 3 hours had still not been seen, I have a pretty clear idea of how dangerous it is to have this hospital running in this way for our community. I think I am genuinely traumatised by my time there. I ended up at Boots where the chemist suggested we use straps and a lollipop stick to keep the finger straight and then to call 111. 

I come from a family of doctors in Ireland, and my mother lives in France, so I have had a very different experience of health care. But we pay out taxes here, and we want to do something positive.

1. I am not going to pretend that the way the hospital is run, the lack of staff, the lack of beds is the whole problem. My time there made it abundantly clear there is a huge drugs and alcohol problem that probably accounts for 50% of the daily intake and time

2. It also highlighted to me that in the absence of minor injury units there is extra, unnecessary stress on the A&E

3. This is made worse with GP surgery appointments not being available, suggesting to go to A&E more than is likely necessary. Further, not knowing our own doctors makes this worse.

4. To this end I wonder if the following is possible - 

A. Petition for two minor injury locations north and south of Northampton to deal with smaller, non life threatening problems

B. Charge - like in Australia - anyone who calls the ambulance for no good reason and abuses the system. 

C. Make on site donations easier. When I was there before I wanted to give money but there was no easy way. I did then give some on the phone but if you had a tap and donate area I think you would receive a lot of grateful funds.

Yours wanting to help but deeply traumatised.