"Treated appallingly"

I was brought to Wigan A&E by ambulance inJuly 2014 with a back injury. I was in extreme pain but due to the ambulance being unable to access the site where I had injured myself, I was asked by the paramedics to walk to the ambulance with their assistance & taking gas & air. I was then administered 2 lots of morphine en route to A&E because of the extreme pain. On arrival at A&E because they knew that I had walked to the ambulance they automatically assumed there was no major trauma and I was immediately transferred to minor injuries where I was left for some time until I was finally seen by a doctor who was extremely rude to both me & my husband. He asked if we were cousins that had married because we looked like each other! What a very strange and personal comment to make. After being told I needed an x-ray I then waited for approximately 2 hours before I got taken for the x-ray due to what I heard the Porter saying "Sorry I didn't realise that call for x-Ray hadn't been done". The results came back and allegedly there was nothing wrong & I heard the doctor say "right we can get rid of her now". I was prescribed some painkillers and sent on my way. My husband had to ask if there was a wheelchair we could use due to me being unable to walk. After being in pain for 5 months & facilitating my own physiotherapy & visiting my GP 5 times I finally got referred for an MRI, which revealed that despite Wigan A&E telling me there was nothing wrong with me and expecting me to walk as normal, I actually fractured my spine in 2 places! I am now due to attend an appointment to see a surgeon (thankfully not at Wigan!) to see if I need corrective surgery. I realise our NHS & A&E departments are stretched to capacity but please treat people with respect and assess their injuries properly.