"5 hour wait at A&E"

On 7 December 2018 I attended A&E service at Royal Berkshire for a minor condition requiring antibiotics, as it is Friday and can’t see my GP until Monday. After been seen promptly by an assistant who clearly did not know about the condition and looked at me bewildered when I explained, I was then told there was a 3h wait. I patiently waited for 4h after which I enquired about an update on times. I was told there was a 5h wait time.

Now, I understand my situation was not a priority, but 5h is simply unacceptable under any reasonable circumstances, and today is not especially busy in any way, shape or form.

Please review your staffing and allow adequate support of A&E services as it is clearly insufficient and inefficient at the moment. I have never seen anything this bad.

I should add this is my second time in A&E at this hospital. The prior visit was for a broken ankle and I Was brought in in an ambulance. I was placed in a wheelchair in a corridor and waited for hours again, until an assistant or nurse came to ask, and I quote: “sorry but where did you come from, you just appeared here and we don’t know anything”. I replied that if they didn’t know, then little I could be of any help! The fact I was in the middle of a corridor with nurses and doctors walking past yet no one realises for hours is telling of then poor service offered by this hospital.