"Worried about my yearly Diabetic eye test since my last traumatic experience"

I recently attended the Hallamshire hospital for my yearly diabetic retinopathy screening test. What a very distressing experience this turned out to be, not only for myself but from my observations for other patients that attended on that day too. From walking into the department the impression to me was one of disorganisation. Four rooms were being used along a corridor, that was a waiting area for patients. The corridor was narrow with chairs either side the consulting rooms, in addition a large locker was present also in the corridor.

While I was there, a very frail lady in a wheel chair was present and a little later another frail lady appeared in the corridor also in a wheel chair, it was more distressing for this lady because she had a catheter secured to her leg. One cannot imagine how these two lady's must have felt. I think this was undignified and uncaring to say the least.

As for how I was treated once in the room is another story. A simple task of placing eye drops in to both eyes was troublesome, to say the least, after all I was not new to this proceedure. Just what the drops contained I cannot imagine, drops I have received from my optometrist in the past have never been as painful.

Knowing I must experience this yearly ordeal has never concerned me in the past, however, I have major worries for future visits.