"Poor communication, poor service"

Took myself to A&E after having abdominal pains for over 4 weeks. I HAD already visited my GP the week before, who though it could be muscle damage, but as the pain was still going on I knew it needed more looking into. I turned up after 10 am, and it was sad to see how busy the department and all staff was.

Explained my situation to the triage nurse, told her I had already been to see my GP and the pain wasn’t getting better, took my name along with a few more to be called out, and us all were sent to another area to wait and see the out-of-hours GP. Over 4 hrs wait to be told by the GP we need to rule out kidney stones, however the urologist is at Wigan Hospital, not Bolton.

I sat their whilst he argued on the phone with the urologist at Wigan, who rightly so was saying I needed a scan to confirm, but as I had been sent to the GP he was replying with he has no way of requesting that as he was a GP . So the only way would be to go back and start again through Accident and Emergency, (this is the reason I took myself there in the first place and not back to my own GP).Eventually the urologist accepted to see me without any test, and I was given a letter and told to make my way to Wigan A&E.

I arrived there at just gone 3 pm, and sadly to the same sight of extremely overcrowded waiting room and staff run off their feet. I booked in, sat and waited for triage again to be placed in the waiting area for someone to come from urology. By 10 pm, and me asking a few times in between to chase him up, I was moved to another area, as he clearly was never going to show in the A&E department.

Just before 11 pm he eventually came to see me, told me straight away he didn’t think it was kidney stones, (and neither did I to be honest, I thought we were just ruling it out) and so wouldn’t need to do a scan. When I asked about the pain I had had for over a month now, he just offered painkillers (I presumed it was his job to try and investigate what else it could be).

I sat there for a further 10 mins not sure what was happening, asked the nurse on duty and told her I want to go home now - I was tired, in pain and my mind was boggled with it all. She hadn’t a clue either and rang the urologist and told him I want to leave and was waiting for anything else, to which she came back to me with a piece of paper and said, he’s happy for you to go home but wants you to sign this as he has not been back to see you. WHAT. Back for what??? I could only imagine it was to give me the prescription. Poor communication, poor service. I signed myself out at 11:15 pm.

So over 13 hrs in two Accident and Emergencies, and I’m sat here at home still in pain not knowing what is causing it. On the plus side, at least they think it’s not kidney stones,,, 🙈🙈🙈

Where do I go now??? If anyone can point me in a direction where I might be able to get help, please.