"The Top priority for this Hospital should be Organisation "

Over the years I have visited both of these hospitals A&E departments numerous times & each time was worse than the one before.

The main problem is the complete lack of organisation, it doesn't seem to make any difference whether there are 2 people in front of you or 52, the waiting time is the same, it APPEARS that the waiting time that is advertised is the time you will wait regardless! After registering you wait to be called into "triage" after which either you need to see a doctor or you don’t & are sent home.

If you need to see a doctor another wait which is expected as I understand the doctors are covering the hospital as well as A&E-however the "triage" side does not keep flowing, bearing in mind that a lot of those people waiting will not need to see a doctor!

As the waiting time is so long (usually about 4hrs) you have nothing else to do but watch what is going on. On a visit some 2 weeks ago a group of 5 nurses were stood around a desk talking for an hour & half, there was only 6 people waiting & not 1 was called to triage in that time-I had only gone for an x-ray already having seen a doctor & been given a letter, after registering, handing over my letter which was returned to me & waiting for nearly 2 hours I asked how much longer would it be as I only needed an x-ray, one of the nurses needs to examine you first was the answer, after another 2 hours wait I was called into triage by the nurse who didn’t even LOOK at the offending foot she just read the letter & sent me to x-ray! !, patients are moaning but how many are bothering to complain? Not that many would be my guess as once they are dealt with they just want to get home & forget about another daunting experience.

My last visit a few days ago the department was a lot busier & yet as a nurse appeared & called for "MR A" he had gone, she called again, no answer so went away. Some 25/30mins later she appeared again & called "MR B" he’d also gone, 25/30 later she appeared again & called "MR C" bingo! He was still there but WHY when MR A is not present is MR B called straight away? Someone/something needs to be put in place to see the amount of time that is wasted from sheer lack of organisation-the staff on the whole are very pleasant although 1 receptionist a large blonde older member of staff who was on duty 26th April approx. 8pm needed a course in customer service, she obviously saw no wrong in leaving people standing at the desk till she saw fit to attend to them, regardless of the fact that some were in pain or could barely stand. She was hard pushed to leave her chair or even move it closer to the window & be in front of you, an outstretched arm was offered & the person had to get as close to the window as possible to be heard-drastic measures need to be put in place as lack of money may be part of the problem with the NHS - BUT organisation is a bigger problem