"Recent visit to Grantham A&E"

I had a fall a few days ago and had to attend Grantham Hospital A&E.  They were noticeably busy, it was Saturday morning. 

I was in a lot of pain but was seen as quickly as possible, we were told it would probably be a 2 hour wait to be triaged. 

When I went in to see the nurse she gave me painkillers which most likely would have  been available had I requested them earlier.

I then saw the doctor and was sent for an xray. I had dislocated my shoulder. 

From that time my treatment was taken care of by this doctor. 

I have to say that although they were very busy they were extremely pleasant and made me feel at ease.

They sorted my shoulder and even though we were there for 5 hours I have nothing but praise for the NHS staff as I always have had.

What really surprises me is that this A&E department closes at 6pm and if I had fallen at that time of night I would have had to travel to either Lincoln or Nottingham.

I live in Nottingham and was visiting my daughter at the time of my accident.

Grantham is a growing town with more housing being built and more people coming to live in the area. Surely someone needs to assess the need for this hospital A&E to be open for longer if not 24 hours.

I have heard that there is a shortage of doctors and there is growing concern about our NHS (I hope that we never get to the point of our health service being fully privatised) I believe part of it is going that way I wonder why??

I am aware that this is probably a longer message than needed but initially I wanted to say what a great service we have in the NHS and that Grantham A&E staff are brilliant.