"Positive experience at A&E"

My wife injured her wrist and as it was very painful was concerned that it may have been broken. Went to A & E at 3. 15pm. Clock on website indicated 9 patients waiting with a wait time of 1 hour 50 minutes. Was not totally clear as to whether that was the wait to see a navigation nurse or a doctor? In reality we were seen by the navigation nurse at 3. 55pm and referred to minors.

Do not know if there is an infection control implication, but for parents who had taken their children accompanying them, it may have been good for there to be books/toys in the waiting area. We had seen a doctor by 4. 30pm and referred to x-ray where understandably there was a wait while 2 bed patients were dealt with in addition to patients referred by minors.

After the x-ray, we were seen again by the doctor who carefully examined the x-rays with my wife and confirmed that it was just a bad sprain. He treated it by fitting a wrist gauntlet and we left at 5. 50pm.

Throughout we were treated with respect by the staff. We were impressed that around 5. 30pm a trolley was brought to the minors area and patients were offered FOC sandwiches biscuits and bottled water.

We appreciate that the A&E may not have been at its busiest but it appeared to be very clean and everyone appeared to have been dealt with as quickly as possible.