"Comunaction and actual help"

Dear Mr. Hartley, Thank you for taking the time to post your comment. I am sorry to hear you felt you had a bad experience in our emergency department. I can understand your frustration at the delay in waiting to be seen. Waiting times can vary from the estimate we put up as some patients may need more time than expected. Certain patients may need to be seen by specialist staff who may be tied up elsewhere, and sometimes another patient may need to 'jump the queue' for clinical reasons. Unfortunately there isn't much we can do about this except apologise to you for your wait. Regarding your ankle injury, it seems to me the main issue is one of communication. The current medical evidence advises us to generally avoid prescribing crutches for patients with ankle sprains as it can often lead to joint stiffness and cause more problems than the original injury. (Obviously this may need to be modified on an individual patient basis). We would normally share this information with you, explain how bad we thought your ankle sprain was, and give you an estimate of how long such injuries usually take to heal. We would also normally give you an advice leaflet with instructions on how to look after an ankle injury. I am sorry if this was not the case. I will look into your details this week and feedback to the staff involved. I hope your ankle is healing well. This often takes several weeks and it may be worth asking your GP to check on how you are progressing. Finally, we could look into your concerns more formally if you wish. Please let us know via our Patient Information Liaison Service online: http://www.leicestershospitals.nhs.uk/patients/patient-welfare/patient-information-and-liaison-service/ or email: pils@uhl-tr.nhs.uk or free phone: 08081 788337 Thank you once again for your comments. Yours sincerely, Dr. Pro Mukherjee Consultant in Emergency Medicine University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust