"Hemel Urgent Care Centre - not urgent"

Anything else?

I attended the urgent care centre a few weeks ago - a really basic requirement to just get some eyedrops for conjunctivitis that had become severe quite quickly. Heeding NHS advice to not clog up A&E departments we went to urgent care at Hemel. But what a disaster. I saw the tirage nurse within 30 mins, but then it took over 4 hours to be seen, and for simply having a quick look at my eye and then dispensing some eye cream. It was late Monday evening, and wasn't very busy. Only 3 other patients were seen by Urgent Care during this period (seen entering and leaving), the treatment staff just seemed to disappear for ages between each patient, and although there could have been a patient in the treatment area that was receiving some more intense treatment that warranted the additional delay but there was no evidence of this. Were the treatment staff just having extended tea breaks? No useful update was available from the disinterested member of staff on reception on why I needed to wait so long. The waiting area was basic, only one of two vending machines were working. Many of the posters up on the noticeboards were unkempt and out of date, especially the infection control status report which was three months out of date at the time of my visit.