"Excellent Saturday Service in Urgent Care"

I had a minor accident (large horse trod on relatively small foot) and suspected I had broken my big toe and knew that it needed an x-ray. I phoned the QE2 Urgent Care number and they confirmed that they had Saturday x-ray facilities (St Albans does not) so off I went. What a great new building. Attractive, clean, airy, not too clinical and institutionalised and a beautiful inner courtyard garden.

There were loads of people there but the vast majority were for the 'out of hours' GP service. I was seen in quick succession by the Triage Nurse, Assessment Nurse, who gave me some painkillers as I was in considerable pain, and Emergency Nurse Practitioner who passed me on to have an x-ray. There was a short wait between each stage but then a final session with the ENP who was really clear in explaining the x-ray and cleaned up and bound my toe and arranged for me to return to the fracture clinic in a week.

At all times the service was professional, friendly and everything our NHS should be. We all need to do all we can to keep it and a huge thanks to al the staff on duty on 7th November.

My only gripe has absolutely nothing to do with the Urgent Care staff and service. They were quick but I was there just over the two hours so had to pay £5.30 for parking - that's extortionate......does this money go directly to the hospital or to some wretched money making third party?