"Outpatients and A&E - Felt like I was wating staff's time"

I had unexplained vaginal bleeding on the morning of 16/07/2017, contacted 111 who advised that I visit the outpatients unit at UHND, and made an appropriate appointment.

The appointment was fine and the doctor provided some advice and sent me on my way, however, once I got out of the hospital building I felt a severe pain in my ovaries and was feeling dizzy. My fiancé guided me back to A&E.

I waited 30 minutes to be triaged in A&E, which was reasonable, however when I explained my symptoms to the triage nurse she said that she "didn't think we will get to the bottom of this today as we don't have any scanning facilities available on a Sunday. " I really felt that she felt I was making it all up or exaggerating how bad the pain was and I felt like I shouldn't be there and was wasting their time.

I was seen by a doctor in A&E who merely felt my stomach and said as it felt soft it couldn't be anything serious. The doctor examined the results from my urine test and said that there was no sign of water infection. Again, I was sent home with the advice of take some painkillers to ease the pain in the stomach.

I understand how overstretched and underfunded the NHS is but feel on this occasion that the treatment I received was not at the level of care I would have expected. I honestly believe I should have been offered the opportunity to be referred for a scan to rule out anything.

Also, how can a hospital claim to function without adequate scanning facilities on a weekend. I’d hate to think that someone else was fobbed off in the way I was for daring to be in ill on a Sunday, and it turned out to be something really serious.

Can I ask why UHND thinks that it is suitable to run a functioning hospital without adequate facilities? Illness doesn’t just occur on a Monday – Friday, 9 - 5 basis.

To end on a positive, the waiting time between arriving at A&E, triage and seeing the doctor was under two hours and I felt this was excellent. If the rest of my visit had been as efficient as that this may have been a more positive review.