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"waiting time was fine but i felt pretty..."

About: St George's Hospital (Tooting) (London)

i started having painful feet cramps one day, lasted for 4 hrs, i thought lack of salts or water had brought it on, id never experienced anything like it before. we were on holiday in a village at the time, i just kept wrapping them in hot towels to try relieve the pain. the next day they felt fine, i even went for a big walk so i didnt go to see my gp when i got home. but 10days later, on a tuesday night at at 6.30pm it started again. i had plenty of water that day and hadnt been doing anything strenuous. after 2.5 hours of painful cramps and weird muscle pains it didnt stop & i was frightened. i found st georges listed under walk-in centres on nhs site. my partner drove me, it was ~9pm June 3, and i was seen by the triage nurse promptly. he was friendly and quickly assessed me, gave me a jar, asked me to go to the toilet then take jar to reception. reception didnt want jar, i was a bit embarrased carrying pee around, but had been surprised he requested to give it to reception in the first place. i was quite confused and in pain, reception asked me to sit down and wait. my calfs were seizing up, my feet still intermittantly cramping, & pains n my thighs and arms. after ~half hour reception called a similar name out & i went over, there was confusion as my name was recorded wrong. i gave details while standing, my calves had all gone tight and i was getting jolts of pain. the receptionist was matter-of-fact. i was quite confused and took some time to find various numbers and details. i was told to sit down again & over the ~3.5 hours i waited in total the cramps and pains lessened and stopped. my partner suggested we wait & check with a doctor what might have caused it &if we should be concerned. i was called ~12.30am &myself and my partner went in. a young doctor asked me what the problem was, i explained my symptoms. said i had been in pain & frightened i had come to the walk-in, but now the cramps had stopped. the doctor seemed out of it, and was quite abrupt. he just looked at me and didnt say much, & didnt make sense when he asked questions. i was worried, he eventually said well, we should have a look at your feet then &went to a box outside the room and rumaged around, he came back in with a long plastic thing. he sat there swinging it in his hand and tapping the bulky bit with his other, menacingly, like he had a baseball bat. i took my shoes off but my calves &feet were so tight from the cramping i was scared what he might do and that it would hurt or start the cramps again. my partner by that stage was worried about the doctors attitude and said we should go, i was on the verge of tears and agreed. i apologised for wasting his time and we left. i felt so upset by the whole experience i burst into tears as soon as i left. my gp is normally 2wks wait, but got earlier appt, now i know my vit d was <18 nmol/L. she said tht explains my symptoms, and prescribed vit d course. i still have pains &cramps but hope they go soon.

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Response from St George's Hospital (Tooting) 9 years ago
St George's Hospital (Tooting)
Submitted on 23/06/2014 at 18:00
Published on nhs.uk on 24/06/2014 at 04:00


Thank you for taking the time to post feedback about your experience at St George’s Hospital. I am sorry that it was negative. I will inform the manager of the service of your experience and comments. If you would like to talk to the service about your experience and if you have not done so already, then please contact the PAL Service at pals@stgeorges.nhs.uk or on 020 8725 2453 where staff will see what they can do to help.

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