"Maternity triage"

My wife and I went to triage at Newham Hospital and were really disappointed with the service we received. After arriving about 7pm we initially thought we would be seen fairly soon given that there was no one else in the waiting room. However It was already around two hours later by the time anyone took my wife's blood pressure - by this time several people who had come in shortly after us had already been seen. After waiting again to be seen, the baby's movements were monitored and we were told to wait in the waiting room till a doctor could see my wife. Soon after whilst my wife was in the bathroom a member staff came to the waiting room and mentioned to another woman (who had been waiting a long time with a newborn) that the doctor was in theatre and didn't know how long it would be. No one actually came and told me this specifically. Once we had been waiting 3 hours my wife asked Reception if they had any idea how long the doctor would be. They said they can't give any indication of time, it could be 10 minutes or could be hours. It was also advised we did not go home, and that if we decided to come back the next day we would have to go through the whole process again. By this time my wife was in tears - although we understood that sometimes there will be a long wait, the staff did not appear to be busy, there was hardly anyone waiting to be seen and there was a huge lack of communication and the staff did not appear to really care. It was only when my wife was in tears that it seems there was some effort to find out what was going on. We were told there was just one doctor covering the maternity and labour ward and A & E which was why there was such a long wait but had there been more communication and interest shown by the staff it wouldn't have been such an unpleasant experience. Eventually around 4 hours after arriving we were seen by the doctor. Fortunately everything seemed fine, and we could go home soon after. By this time it was after 11pm and we hadn't had dinner and were extremely tired and frustrated. We also felt really bad for another woman who had a newborn, had already been to A&E and was also waiting a long time to be seen.

Overall a very unpleasant experience