"Excellent care from NHS24 and Borders General Hospital"

My 13 year old injured herself playing judo on Saturday. She was still in quite a lot of pain on Sunday and unable to move her elbow.

Aware of pressures at A&E I rang NHS24. Although I was told to expect a wait of over half an hour it was probably only 10 minutes before I was answered by a call handler who was very thorough in establishing what was wrong and said she would ask someone from the BGH to call us back with an appointment.

It was probably a couple of hours before we were called back, but we were given an appointment at the minor injuries unit (within A&E) that same evening. We arrived and were seen within 15 minutes of our allotted time.

The emergency nurse practitioner was absolutely exemplary. She spoke to my daughter (not me - which I think is very impressive and showed that she was taking her and her pain seriously), she took time to explain the process of x-ray (and we waited less than 5 minutes for that) and, once the results came through, to answer all questions about what might have happened, what different pain meant, and how long recovery would take.

Despite the pressures we are all told about, at no point did she make us feel rushed or as though she had anything more important than my child, her pain and her concerns. I cannot praise her highly enough.