"Rude staff, embarrassed me, made me feel..."

Arrived at the hospital with an ankle injury. I had just arrived from a local campsite and was on the first day of the camping holiday (I am not local to the area). I was told it would be about a 4hr wait.

Firstly, there wasn't enough seats in the waiting room - thank goodness a stranger had taken a wheelchair from a different ward for me otherwise they said there would have had no where for me to sit. I was told by the nurse I needed my ankle elevated and that the only place to put it was on one of the tables in the waiting room. Not only was this horridly uncomfortable, but also unhygienic and unpleasant - people eat and drink off those tables.

After about 1hr 20 min wait, I went in to see the triage nurse. She gave me 2 paracetamol to help with the pain. After x-ray i then had to wait over 2hrs30mins for my X-ray results. During this time, the pain was getting unbearable and I asked the same triage nurse if I could have some ibuprofen for the pain. She then tells me she's going to give me some paracetamol - the same nurse had already given me 2 paracetamol around 2hrs earlier!!!!!! I then told her that I couldn't have paracetamol as I'd be overdosing. She looked annoyed that id questioned her and then proceeded to shout across the waiting room that i couldn't have ibuprofen because you can only have it every 8hrs, and that she couldn't give me anything stronger otherwise I'd pass out. (Please note, i did not request stronger pain relief). Everyone in the waiting room started laughing and It made me feel undermined and embarrassed.

I was then seen 30 mins later by a doctor who gave me my X-ray results and then gave me ibuprofen, and she also seemed confused as to why i'd been refused ibuprofen by the nurse and been given misinformation.

Overall, i came away feeling shocked from beginning to end at everything that had happened. It was clear it was busy, and they were understaffed, it was chaotic and mismanaged. I understand wait times can be long, and that staff are doing what they can to get people seen - what I don't appreciate is when I am treated with disrespect, made to feel uncomfortable, embarrassed, nearly given too much medication, and given information that turned out to be inaccurate (the doctor clarified the correct dosage of paracetamol and ibuprofen).

Overall, a shocking experience.