"A&E department was a disgrace"

We were sent to A&E as an emergency. My husband had had a TIA. We had a letter detailing that we had to go immediately through for a scan and consultation. When we arrived the receptionist tried to carry this out, but a nurse overruled them. We waited an hour to see the nurse, despite me continuing to remind them the seriousness of my husband's condition. Another hour later we got to see a stroke nurse. Another hour before having blood taken. I was frantic by this time. Another hour passed, I caught a nurse passing by, they informed me it would be up to 8 hours before we saw a doctor. That would have made it 11pm. And we would have been there TWELVE hours.

We eventually gave up and came home, and saw our GP first thing the following morning. They were disgusted at how we had been treated, and said we should have been seen immediately.

We were referred immediately to the stroke clinic by our GP.

Unfortunately, our experience at the clinic was pretty bad too. After being told to be there at 1. 30, we didn't speak to anyone for an hour. Then we had a couple of tests, then more waiting. Eventually we saw a consultant, we were there four hours.

However one department was very good, and that was the MRI scan department.