"The excellent service received by A&E staff"

I would like to share my recent experience regarding the service we received upon a recent visit to A&E on a Saturday in the early morning.

My partner and I met on Friday evening after work to have a few quiet drinks in a pub we often frequent.  We shared a few drinks together and were enjoying our evening when my partner was attacked by another person in the pub whereby he smashed a glass in my partners face in a completely unprovoked attack.  There was no reason behind this attack and my partner was left with a slash to the left side of his face.  The pub owners called the ambulance service to attend to my partner and also the police to report the attack however the attacker ran from the pub we were in. 

The ambulance service man advised that the cut to my partners face was too deep and we needed to visit the A&E dept in the Royal Infirmary.  It was around 1am by the time we arrived at the A&E dept and I expected it to be like a circus before we arrived but how mistaken was I.  The waiting area was practically empty (unsure if this was due to the efficiency of the staff or if it was just a quiet evening) but we gave our details to the lovely receptionist and waited to be seen.  Twenty minutes passed and we were taken to a room for my partner to be assessed.  We were first seen by a young nurse who asked her superior for another opinion, this second nurse advised us that my partner would need to be given an X-ray and then stitches to his face.  We were taken to X-ray and seen almost immediately.  We were then taken back to the waiting area and after a few minutes were collected again and taken to a side room by Stephen, I assume the senior nurse on duty that evening as the previous nurse we saw asked him for his opinion on the deep laceration. 

I want to highlight how excellent Stephen was with the care he gave to both my partner and myself and how his calm nature really helped a tense situation. 

Stephen advised us that there were no glass fragments in my partner's cheek and that he would administer a numbing injection and then stitch inside the cheek as to try to minimise scarring.  He was empathetic as well as understanding that both of us were distressed about the evening's events and remained professional and caring which I believe helped us both to deal with what was happening. 

I think it is easy to jump to conclusions about the NHS given the amount of negative coverage that is placed upon it at the moment in the news however I have to say that I was extremely impressed and almost overwhelmed by the care and professionalism given to us both by the A&E staff and in particular Stephen. 

I appreciate that he may think he was only doing his job that evening but to us, he really made a difference and we cannot thank him enough.