"Paeds A&E - Chaotic and slow"

My son suffered an eye injury at school. Took him to the GP, who said it was quite serious and a large internal bleed in the eye with pressure building up, so to take him to St Georges A&E immediately and be referred to the Moorfields Eye Unit onsite, which we were told closed at 10pm.

Arrived at the Paeds A&E at 6.30pm. Staff were chaotic, unorganised and we kept stating that we needed to be referred by them through to the Moorfields eye unit asap before it closed. We explained the GP's concerns re bleed and pressure building up and gave them a letter from our GP which had asked them to expedite the process quickly.

We were met with blank faces and "oh, well i see what I can find out for you". We weren't there for an out of hours sniffle, temperature or a rash, this was our child's sight at risk! That didn't seem to be understood by the triage at all.

3 very stressful hours of waiting later, after being seen by a very helpful doctor, the doctor and their senior colleague made a call to the Moorfields eye unit. As it was out of hours we were seen on the ward as "an exception" as they actually closed at 8pm!

Very stressful experience and I would not recommend the A&E department on this basis.