"7 hours in A&E"

Sent here by GP with letter for investigations re suspected urine retention. Arrived 4.30pm. He is 75 and had a hip replacement 3 weeks ago. Initial triage and nurse taking blood, urine etc were fine. Nurse came about 6pm to scan bladder. Informed us that GP's request to see urologist was refused and we would go through 'normal' A&E process. Bladder scan done, nurse told us there was one patient in front of us. Sat and waited. Cafe closed at 5, scraped together enough cash to get a pack of sandwiches from machine. At about 9pm a nurse took names of everyone in waiting room. We enquired about the purpose of that. We were informed that we had been seen by a doctor, we had not. The nurse found the system showed that we had seen a doctor. The nurse made every effort to chase up, but by 10pm we had still not been seen. Needless to say this amount of time sitting in a chair was not good for my husband's hip. We eventually went in at 10.30 and left at 11.30pm. To add insult, a nurse tried to get the £8.30 parking charge reduced. Not possible we were told. Thanks for that.