"Excessive waiting times"

Visited the accident and emergency department of this hospital a few times in the last month. This is no reflection on the front line staff, I'm sure they work tirelessly.

First visit was an emergency referral from a GP for suspected appendices. The total wait time for a conclusive assessment by a doctor was over 5 hours. This is completely unacceptable and put the patient at risk of the appendix bursting.

Second visit was during the early hours of monday morning for a simple laceration to a thumb requiring sutures. So far the wait for this simple treatment has been 3 hours. A gentleman in the waiting room expressed that he arrived in an Ambulance and had been waiting 5 hours for treatment.

There are dirty tissues and empty cups on the waiting room floor, no attempt has been made by any of the reception staff to clean the waiting area, nor have I heard them request a cleaner.

This hospital saved my life not so many years ago. I was treated promptly and proficiently by a lovely consultant and was discharged thinking it was a wonderful place. Sadly the place today is almost unrecognisable in terms of the service, which frankly is pretty much non existent.

This is not the fault of the doctors and nurses, but the people running the hospital should be held to account for the unforgivable decline in quality and care.

In a few hours if we are still sitting here, I suspect we will be, we will be making an emergency appointment at our GP to have the thumb stitched. The GP opens at 08.00am, we arrived at 02.00am approx'. How shocking that this is the current state of our healthcare system.