"A&E Visit - 26th August 2015"

Following an accident at work I needed to visit the A&E department at approx 10am - my first visit to any A&E.

Issues:

I don't understand the receptionist system as they seemed to spend a lot of time updating their system with my personal details rather than focussing on my injury.

At the time I was in considerable pain and as such found it difficult to concentrate on remembering what my wife's mobile number was for their system.

I waited on the red chairs for 40 minutes before anyone had actually seen my injury.

I was losing blood and was in considerable pain.

I am surrounded by other patients who have minor ailments that should be handled by their GP's.

I thought A&E was exactly that. I think the NHS needs to take a tougher line with some patients and refuse them entry at A&E.

Upside:

Once in the system, the standard of care was spot on.

I didn't have to wait long between seeing different people, drugs were administered to control the pain and I was patched up.

I was referred to a specialist at another hospital and all that worked as it should as well.

Conclusion:

The NHS is second to none in the healthcare it provides and I feel the treatment I received could not have been bettered. The system for accessing that treatment is bureaucratic, cumbersome and needs improving so that it is not the bottleneck between getting patients to receive urgent medical treatment.