"A&E Lots of Problems"

Anything else?

I attended A&E on a Sunday with a broken wrist and other injuries and was appalled by how short staffed the department seemed to be, especially at such a busy time. The initial wait was 2.5 hours. OnceI had been seen by a doctor for a quick assessment, there followed another 2 hour wait for x-rays. During the whole of this time, no-one spoke to me to let me know why I was waiting or inform me of approximate timescales. Following my x-rays, there was a further wait of one hour for an orthopaedic surgeon to look at the x-ray of my wrist, and then a further one hour wait for my wrist to be put in a temporary plaster. All of this meant that I was in A&E for almost seven hours. Not only is this an incredible waste of my time, but also a waste of NHS resources. Once I had been assessed, my arm could have been x-rayed and put it in plaster within an hour. Instead, I had to hang around in 2 different cubicles for over 4 hours, which I can only imagine cost a large amount of money. Other issues included: 1) I had hit my head and had a concussion and was told by the initial doctor I saw that I would receive information on head injuries. Henceforth, my head injury was never mentioned again and there was no information given to me on treatment/symptoms to be vigilant for. 2) Upon discharge, I wasn’t given any painkillers. I had to go back to the nurses’ station and request a prescription, and then wait a further 15 minutes for this. If I hadn’t remembered to ask, I wouldn’t have had any pain relief, despite broken bones and numerous other injuries. 3) Referrals for ongoing care were very confused. I was initially offered an appointment with the fracture clinic 5 days after my accident, and as my broken wrist was only in a temporary half plaster, I would have an unstable fracture during this time. I challenged this appointment time and suddenly the appointment was moved to two days’ time. If I didn't have the faculty to challenge the professionals’ advice then I would be in a much worse position.