"Patella dislocation - A&E visit"

This department doesn't seem to like 'out of towners'. I visited here following a slip and fall in the hotel shower where I felt and saw my patella dislocate, as this is something that has happened 12yrs previously I knew to straighten out my knee and assist the patella in slipping back into place. In absolute agony I dressed and my friend drove me to the closest A&E department. On first impression this hospital seemed lovely, very spacious and clean A&E reception, a triage system meant I was required to take a ticket and see a nurse before registering with the hospital. A screen on the wall informed us of a 3 hour wait ... In an empty department, at 9am on a Saturday morning but that was kind of expected for a hospital! The triage nurse was lovely, gentle and caring. I was called in for examination by a friendly doctor who shook my hand, introduced himself and asked what had bought me to the area from leeds. He sent me to x-Ray and then when the X-Ray came back as free from fracture, called me into a storage style room (apparently for privacy) and explained that nothing came up on the X-ray and I should just take ibuprofen for the swelling and that was it!!!! I was shocked! Having done this before, I knew a dislocation needed to be immobilised so when I asked for crutches his response was "you need to bare weight on it" I had to spend the next couple of days popping ibuprofen and hobbling around on an awfully sickening painful knee. As soon as I returned to leeds I went to my GP who referred me to the local fracture clinic and gave me a sick note from work. My visit to the leeds fracture clinic found ligament damage and a knee that is still grossly swollen! I am now off work with my knee in a full immobilising splint, on crutches with a referral to physiotherapy and a follow up appointment in six weeks time! This leaves me wondering if the doctor in telford had immobilised my knee like he should have done, would this have resulted in me taking less time off work and a quicker recovery? Quite possibly. The doctor in the leeds hospital even said that telford had not sent the X-rays across for them!! Not impressed!