"Head Injury patient"

On holiday in beautiful Northumberland I had the misfortune to have a bad fall and hit my head on concrete. I visited a nearby GP who told me that I must go immediately to the hospital, they phoned ahead and gave me a detailed letter to give to A & E.

With my husband driving we arrived at Northumbria hospital at approx 1-15pm .I booked in and noticed the board saying...... Triage 15 mins...... Doctor 2 hours

Triage was about 1 hour 20 mins and doctor another couple of hours.

I was assessed by a very nice doctor, had several skull X-Ray's that showed a fractured cheekbone.

I was very surprised to find such a new hospital did not have a max fac unit and there was every possibility that I would be sent to the RVI in Newcastle, luckily it was eventually decided that it was a stable fracture and a trip to RVI was not essential

The whole process took in excess of 6 hours,

I am over 70 years old and found this situation totally exhausting.