"Excellent Paramedics - Disappointing A&E"

Anything else?

Paramedic Service The paramedics arrived within minutes of my call and provided an excellent service both at home and on the way to the hospital. I would have no hesitation in recommending them - they were fantastic. Hereford A&E Department 1. After waiting an hour to see the triage nurse I was told there were a couple of people in front of me to go to X-Ray, but I was kept waiting for another two hours without any further information about what was going on. The only indication of what was going on was that the screen said the wait to be seen had now increased by an hour. 3. I was eventually taken into a cubicle and assessed by a person who did not introduce themselves; I still do not know if this person was a nurse or a doctor – I am not conversant with colour-coding of uniform nor were they wearing a name-badge. I was then left in the cubicle for 45 minutes; I was assessed and told I would now be going to X-Ray. When the same member of staff came back I was asked how I had got on in X-Ray; however, this had not been organised it so I was still sitting in the cubicle in my wheelchair waiting for a porter. No members of staff came past during the 45 minutes so I could not ask for information. 4. After the X-Ray the person in 3. above came back to the cubicle and gave me a garbled run down of the x-ray results but since I was in shock I did not take it in. I asked for a repeat of the information and had questions about driving, travel insurance, coping during the next few days. The response was again fast and not at all empathetic. I was stunned by the speed of the response and was left feeling unsupported and extremely disappointed by the lack of professionalism. 5. The person then left the cubicle without properly concluding the ‘consultation’. I was left wondering if I should wait for them to return or just arrange to get a taxi from outside. 6. As a professional person who works in a highly stressful environment myself I do understand that A&E staff are under constant pressure and have targets to meet, but I feel it is important my comments are noted by the A&E Department at Hereford County Hospital in the hope that no-one else feels as upset, frustrated and vulnerable as I did on leaving the hospital late one evening after a nasty accident.