"Treatment of puncture wound to hand at A & E, QA..."

Anything else?

Monday evening I was attacked by a cat which bit & punctured my hand in 2 places and clawed my arm from the elbow down. The pain was excruciating and it was bleeding heavily, so I attended A&E within 20mins of it happening. I waited 15 mins to be seen by a nurse who administered painkillers & then I had to wait a further 2 hours to be seen by a Doctor. The lady was very professional but looked at me and asked "what made me attend tonight?" Thinking that was an odd question, given my injury i was a bit taken aback but answered "because it's a cat bite and puntures get infected and i thought I needed antibiotics". I was then advised that they don't administer antibiotics until the wound is already infected. I thought this very odd. Needless to say, I ended up at my GP then next day, in a lot of pain and with infection and the doctor commented that they always give antibiotics for puntures as the bacteria cannot escape. She wasn't impressed. Neither am I. My recovery time has been doubled & more importantly, I have taken up unnecessary time at my GP Surgery, when I could have just received treatment from A&E. With the NHS in trouble, I would have thought a more proactive way of thinking, rather than reactive, would save money & time.