"Visit to Harold Wood Poly Clinic"

My 12 month old son fell on sunday night, and once the bleeding had stopped it looked like his teeth had been pushed back into the gum. As we were snowed in we left it over night, but as a worrying Mum I felt I wanted some reassurance and to have it checked out.

I didn't feel it warranted an A&E visit, so we headed to the local Walk in clinic at Harold Wood Polyclinic.

We did have a long wait - 3 hours - but this is completely understandable as it was the day after the years only snow, and the local A&E was over flowing.

The wait, with a 12 month old, could have been terrible. But the Polyclinic is large and bright, so how ever busy it was it never felt crowded. There was a small childrens play table with small chairs and some books, free internet (and 2 computer terminals for peoples use) and best of all - a fantastic WRVS cafe where my son and I enjoyed sharing some toast, and I had a much needed cup of tea!

A member of staff regularly came out from "behind the desk" to point everything available out to people which helped enormously as the computer terminals might not have been obvious to everyone.

One thing that could have improved it would have been an indication of how long the current wait was. It feels more stressful when you have no idea, and I would have liked to have warned my husband (who was at home with our 3 year old) how long I was likely to be.