I feel very sad to have to write this as someone who works in the NHS myself and know how difficult it can be. However after a recent visit to the A&E department at Raigmore I feel compelled to express my disappointment in the service that was given to my partner.
We were on a weekend away in Inverness when my partner took unwell and had passed blood in his urine, which then followed a sudden onset of pain - we took the decision to attend the department.
On arrival I checked him in as by this point his pain was a 10/10 and he was unable to speak due to the pain. We were checked in quickly and then triaged by a staff nurse which was done in a short space of time. However this is where I felt we were let down. My partner was in a great deal of pain, had a high heart rate, blood pressure and pin and needles in his hands and feet. We explained all this to the triage nurse and I said that I felt he needed some pain relief. We were told that we would have to take a seat back in the waiting area till a doctor was free to see us.
My partner was at the point of passing out due to the pain so I asked reception if there was anything that could be done, I was told we would have to wait till a doctor was free. 3 hours later we were seen by a doctor, however by this point the pain had gone from a 10/10 to a 6/7 out of 10.
I appreciate that A&E is very busy and that there is often a lot going on behind the scenes that the public are not aware of. However I feel that rather than being made to wait in the waiting area once he had been triaged it would have been better for him to be taken somewhere where he could have been given some pain relief and allowed to wait until a doctor was free! I feel that if it had been dealt with that way then it would have been less traumatic all round.
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