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completely diabolical and made me lose faith in...

Story from nhs.uk

"completely diabolical and made me lose faith in..."

About: Watford General Hospital

What I liked

Nothing.

What could be improved

The waiting time!!!

When I arrived I there was no mare than 4 people already there yet I had to wait 2 and a half hours to be seen. About 3-4 people was seen in one hour which, to me, its ridiculous and completely unacceptable. Two of the nurses/doctors were repeatedly coming out and calling patients in at the same time; I find it very hard to believe that they were both taking the same length of time with their patients which leads me to believe that they were not fulfilling their duty properly.

Initaially I was seen at Hemel Hempstead UCC about a broken nose and was told to go over to Watford for ENT, I went over to the A&E department where I stated this. I was left of 2 and a half hours to be told that I was in the wrong place and that I should have been over in St Albans seeing a specialist. Due to the time frame it was important that I was seen quickly to get it looked at and corrected and was told that my details would be faxed over in the next 20mins and they would call me. The following day I left a message stating this as I was worried that I would have to have a more complicated procedure to fix my nose. Less than an hour after my message was left I got my anticipated phone call and was told that my appointment was at Watford hospital.

I am finding it difficult to understand how two doctors could have given me the wrong information and why I couldn't have been sent straight over to out patients from the A&E department as the doctor was aware of the importance that I get seen quickly.

I am appalled by the service I was given and will be looking into private health care as I have lost all faith in the NHS after this blunder. It is no surprise that the NHS has a bed reputation when people are given this type of service.

Anything else?

The carpark is ridulous, you can only buy a minimum of 3 hours for a parking ticket costing £4.00. I can't understand why this is so as not every visit to hospitals take this long (unless you are in A&E or UCC or any other service simular).

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Responses

Response from Watford General Hospital 11 years ago
Watford General Hospital

Submitted on 18/09/2012 at 13:29
Published on nhs.uk on 01/10/2012 at 22:15

Thank you for taking the trouble to comment through our NHS Choices service. You’re clearly very unhappy about the experience you had at Watford General and issues of this nature are taken very seriously.

We are always concerned to hear of any patients who are unhappy with the care and service they have received.

Without full details of your specific case and the additional patients being treated in A&E at the time, it is difficult to comment. But issues of this nature are taken very seriously. The importance of a wholly positive patient experience is one of our key objectives, and the issue of communication between our staff and patients is a fundamental area we’re working hard to improve in.

We know that our senior clinical colleagues will want to investigate this thoroughly on your behalf, so we can look into what went wrong for you and why.

Therefore if you are willing to do so, please contact us directly through the Trust’s Quality Assurance department at wherts-tr.complaintsteam@nhs.net . We will aim to thoroughly investigate these issues promptly, and provide you with a detailed response.

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