"Thank you for your help and for listening to us"

I attended Battle hill walk incentre on Sunday with my 2 year old daughter who has had chesty coughs of and on for 3 months. Every time I took her to my own GP practice we were just sent home and told that its normal for kids to get different colds every 5 -6 weeks.

On sunday morning her breathing seemed a bit more rapid so we attended the centre hoping for some antibiotics. There were long waits but because our daughter was only 2 they carried out an assessment within 10mins to see if she was well enought to wait. The assessment showed she wasn't fit enought to wait and staff called an ambulance straight away and her transferred to hospital where she was admitted with pneumonia.

We can't thank the staff enough for listening to us and acting quickly.

Many people have complained about long waiting times in there reviews but the reality is this, walk in centres operate out of hours services for minor ailments and injuries. The centres are few and far between and as such are indemend. Expecting to wait up to an hour or even 2 is not unreasonable. If your health condition is so bad that you need immediate attention then you should attend a&E.

Also spare a thought for the nursing and healthcare staff that work long unsocial hours in stressful enviroments, get paid poor wages and have to put up with patients moaning about the service when they are just trying to do there job!

oh... and if you were a patient in America,your long wait, inital assesment treatment and diagnosis would have cost you about £200- £300! I believe its free here in England