"I got parked faster than normal (well at..."

What I liked

I got parked faster than normal (well at least that's positive).

What could be improved

Keeping patients informed of waiting times either when they arrive or by announcement to the congregation at large at regular intervals.

In pharmacy, when some customers need things sorting out that are going to take a while (as was the case with the people we observed), having other staff cover the counter rather than just letting the queue of customers grow.

Anything else?

The whole saga:

My wife had a follow-up appointment in the ENT outpatients (clinic C). The appointment was for 11:30 and we arrived in plenty of time and despite a delay in parking the car, were in the clinic by 11:15.

She was finally seen at 12:10 (40 minutes late) but we weren't informed of any delay when we had checked in at reception.

The Dr and nurses were kind, courteous and helpful and my wife was prescribed some hydrocortisone for an ear infection that had been found during the visit. She was issued a prescription.

On arriving at pharmacy, we were issued our ticket and informed there was a 45 minute wait for dispensing, so we informed staff we would return later to collect.

We returned to pharmacy at 16:00. There was one person waiting at each of the two counters and several others seated. The customer handing in her prescription was explaining to the pharmacist (?) a letter she had with her GPs (non-hospital) prescription. This pharmacist subsequently disappeared (and we didn't see her again). The customer awaiting her prescription was just stood waiting.

After about 10 minutes with nobody dealing with the customers at the counter,a member of staff finally came over to offer to help (there were plenty of them, they were just all busy doing other things). The two people already being dealt with explained they were being dealt with, but neither knew what was happening as the people dealing with them appeared to have left the department. My wife handed in her ticket for collection, but the prescription couldn't be found. 5 minutes later it turned up (after quite a search involving 2 people) but the identifying (numbered) ticket had disappeared. 15 minutes just to collect a prescription seems far from ideal.

All in all, two fairly unsatisfactory visits!