"waiting time and facilities in eye casualty"

I visited the casualty department saturday 23rd March 2013. I had to wait well over 5 hours to see the doctor such that the drops placed in my eyes at 1750hrs had worn off by the time I saw the doctor. I had to have further drops and hence a further delay. I appreciate the department was busy but we were never updated by staff into when we were likely to be seen apart from 3-4 hrs wriiten on a board. Patients were seen quite quickly in the early part of the evening but for about 2 hours very few patients were being called through. We should have been told what was going on. We were then taken upstairs as they wished to close the area we had been waiting. The casualty area is very small, cramped and drab, there are no facilities to buy food and/or drink, the female toilet hadnt been cleaned according to my wife who was with me, the one tv in the area is never on and there is little reading material. When you have to wait such a length of time, the accommodation provided needs to be of a certain standard. My wife and I hadnt eaten since midday, I was seen finally after 10 pm. I worked as a Biomedical Scientist in the NHS for 22 years and in Healthcare for 41years. I appreciate delays occur but more communication is preferred and the facilities at this casualty department brought up to a basic and acceptable standard. It was a throwback to some of the hospitals I worked at in the early seventies! I have no issues with the staff who were very pleasant.