"Mountain out of a Mole Hole "

When I first got into the A&E queue, I thought it was fantastically organised as the triage system were quick and efficient. This was a Bank Holiday weekend and when I got into the actual nursing unit, things started to unravel very quickly.

I had four people in front of me, so judging by this I was expecting to be seen within the 2 hour slot. I had an eye problem and my vision was blurry in one eye. My suspicion was retinal tear or detachment and needed to see the specialist asap.

My frustration really is, after a long 3.5 hours wait - I was seen by a nurse who did a basic check but had no means or expertise to access complicated case as this. I was, as expected, referred to the Eye Specialist eventually - who concluded I had to have an urgent eye surgery carried out at City Roads main Moorfield hospital the next day.

What I conclude from this is, for all intent and purposes - everyone may be following the set procedure but this lacked serious common sense.

I do appreciate NHS is a pit for red tapes and zillions of paperwork before you even speak to your patients but If one of there nurses were have interactions with the people in the queue essentially to check who they can promptly send away ( to different department ) it would have helped everyone including themselves. For example there were two cases who came with suspected broken bones and all they were told ( after 4 hours wait) was to get an X-ray. For me, if a nurse had approached me in the queue and asked me what the problem was, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to send me straight to eye department rather than having to wait nearly

4 hours to be told the same. Then 2 more hours wait in the eye unit.

It took me total of 6 hours that day when the care finished and was totally aghast to see how Traditionally set the NHS management system is. Every single one of the staff ( Mainly nurses ) behaved as if they were very entitled and important. They lacked customer care as a bottom line.