"2 staff were fantastic at A&E ..."

What I liked

2 staff were fantastic at A&E - caring, informative and factual

What could be improved

Checking into A&E

When advising and visabily limping or being carried into A&E, why are crutches or wheelchairs not found and offered? Myself and others were expected to limp into the consulation room.

The waiting time was over 2.5 hours for initial consulattion. I advised i was in pain when booking in, but had to wait almost 3 hours for pain relief - why?

Information

I was placed in cast, but my x-rays showed no visable break. A consultant 'thought' i may have a break (why not do another x-ray to be sure?) and plastered me as a preventative measure. Admittedly, i was booked for an MRI scan, but was just told to wait to get an appointment through the post for this.

I've now had my MRI and am waiting for another appointment to discuss the results -- I dont know how long i'll have to wait for this appointment and Im concerned about the aparent lack of urgency - why aren't standard waiting times issued?

2 and a half weeks after my accident I still dont know what/if i've broken, what the recovery process will be or how long it'll take. I'm just left hoping that i dont gain too much ligament scaring in the process.

Anything else?

Standard information leaflets should be available to patients,including things such as:

- Directions from Selly Oak to other nearby hospitals, e.g to City Hospital (the A&E staff seem surprised that not everyone has a Sat Nav, and even if i did, a postcode reference would have been helpful

- Caring for your injury

How to avoid getting injurys wet, exercises to do/not do whilst healing to ensure against muscle damage/wastage

Standard waiting times

follow a patient journey from GP/A&E through the various clinics and issue standard waiting times

A&E waiting room - issue notices of 'general' wait, provide staff to do initial aiting room checks of patuents to issue pain releif, advise if they'd be better to go to another hospital (eg eye hospital A&E at City hospital ifthey have an eye injury) advise if they could see their GP etc instead of having lots of (im)patients waiting for hours to then be told they've wasted their time/could have taken ibuprofen hours ago/need to go somewhere else etc.