"A&E - needs attention"

My son broke his wrist in France last week, was told to attend a doctor on returning to UK as it needed further attention. We chose this A&E because my husband has been satisfied with his care at the Wm Harvey (cardiac care though). The A&E service was not good. We were there for 3 hours 45 minutes - are you still under the target of "dealing" with patients" in 4 hours? we were suspiciously near the 4 hour mark when told we could leave. Anyway - we were sorted (triaged) very quickly, sent for an x-ray also quickly, then waited for hours to see a doctor who, in 5 minutes only, pointed out a break on my son's arm and said it was all ok and he could wait to attend a fracture clinic. Only problem was - there were 2 breaks; the cast was loose and sawn in half (by the French, an anti-pressure-on-the-plane device; his arm/hand hadn't been washed and was seriously itchy under the cast and worst of all - it turned out there was no need at all for the French to have cast his elbow as the problem was at the wrist. We were sent away by Ashford A&E with my son's perfectly ok elbow immobilised in a cast unnecessarily and the doctor was happy for him to have a healthy joint immobilised for 2 weeks? This does not seem sensible to me. I was so unhappy I took him the next morning to Maidstone A&E - we left in under 2 hours with his arm in a cast only a third as massive as the original, and the nurses having gently washed his arm to get rid of the under cast muck that was causing him irritation. I can only say that the Ashford A&E seem very happy to do less than their best by their patients. Maidstone, on the other hand, appeared to be on a different planet - one that cares for its patients. I'm happy that I had the means/ability to take my son from one A&E to the other - I'm concerned that others can't and have no alternative but to put up with sub-standard care.