"Some concerns after a visit to the Fracture Clinic at the QMC, Nottingham"

I took my partner to an appointment at the Fracture Clinic at the QMC. While I am satisfied with the level of care he received from clinical staff, I am far from satisfied with the car parking/waiting time/prescription arrangements involved with this appointment.

Bearing in mind my partner's broken bone significantly impaired his walking ability, there was nowhere for me to park near the clinic in order to leave the car for a few minutes to assist him into the unit. All the parking spaces near the Fracture Clinic are Blue Badge spaces (surely people who have a broken bone are more likely not to have a Blue Badge as their broken bone is not a permanent disability). Hence I had to park 'illegally' while helping him into the clinic.

I then had to move my car and drive around for half an hour searching for a parking space while leaving him alone in the clinic. The parking space I eventually found was so far away from the unit (the far side of Car Park 3), it was ridiculous and took me at least 10 minutes to walk back to the clinic.

On entering the clinic, my partner was still waiting to be seen and a nurse announced that appointments were running at least one and a half hours behind schedule (all adding nicely to the parking fees). When my partner was finally seen, he was handed a prescription which can only be dispensed by the hospital, not a normal chemist and this resulted in a further wait of nearly an hour for the medication to be dispensed and a long walk for my partner to reach the prescription collection point.

I then had to leave my partner again to go and retrieve my car. On arrival at Car Park 3, there were no signs to tell me the location of a pay machine. When I eventually found one, it was out of order. A helpful member of QMC staff finally pointed me in the direction of the car park’s only working machine.

All in all, our visit to the QMC took from 9.30 am to 2 pm, and was considerably stressful bearing in mind my having to keep leaving my partner alone while dealing with the car. Add to this the wait in the clinic itself and the ridiculous prescription policy, whereby it HAS to be collected from the QMC. My partner has to return to the clinic next week. Heaven help us.