I went to the A&E because I had badly sprained my ankle. I waited a long time, but the waiting room was full, so I do not think I was unfairly treated in that respect. I was received by a nurse who organised an X-ray of my ankle, to determine whether I had any fracture. This took a long long time, both to have to X-ray done, and to get someone available to read it for me and to make a diagnosis. The person who read the X-ray was apparently not a doctor. He was not sure whether I actually had a fracture or not (whether a small bone was a proper bone or a broken bit of another one). So he decided to arrange a visit to a fracture clinic in about 10 days time. When asked, he refused to put a bandage, saying the bandage would not last more than 24 hours. So I went home with just a pair of crutches, since I could not use my foot anymore for walking. I later got some information from a medical doctor specialising in sports injuries, who said that sprains should be compressed quickly to avoid the buildup of scar tissue, and that would determine whether the recovery would take few months or twice that. So all in all, I was definitely not impressed at all. - The staff who read my x-ray could not determine whether I had a fracture or not, and decided to postpone the diagnosis by ~ 10 days. - The staff refused to put a bandage to compress my ankle, which seems to be only thing to do in such a case. Overall a poor and disappointing experience. I had a similar experience elsewhere before (very bad sprain at night), and I was then treated well and quickly, and the recovey was much much quicker then.
"Less than minimum care really"
About: Chelsea & Westminster Hospital Chelsea & Westminster Hospital London SW10 9NH
Posted via nhs.uk
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