"What a let down!"

I have lived in the area for over 40 years. During that time, I've used this facility three times. All has been fine before, but this morning was an incredibly negative experience.

I came in with persistent bone inflammation in my elbow that hadn't gone away for six weeks. I was also unable to schedule an appointment with my GP for over a week. 30 minutes waiting to see a nurse for 3 minutes. During that three minutes, I was made to feel I was wasting the nurse's time despite there being a grand total of two other people waiting behind me and at least three nurses available.

I was told that unless it had happened within two weeks, all routes of referral were closed to them. Just as well I didn't have Ebola. If this is hospital policy, it should be stated. It is not. I was asked if I had private medical insurance, when th nurse learnt I had I was told to "just use that" and "get some physio."

Even I, without any medical training can tell that my symptoms had nothing to do with a need for physio. Either there's a crack in the bone, or I need to wait longer for it to repair itself. The nurse couldn't even be bothered to make eye contact half the time they were speaking to me, so I didn't mention the excess involved either.

There are good people here. I have had positive experiences before, but this was truly awful in all respects.