"Urgent Care Unit"

This newly formed body simply seems a way of farming out patients perhaps to massage figures. As a referral from the walk in centre I entered AE to a full triage examination. Further tests were carried out and having spent two hours at the walk in centre I was referred again after forty minutes to the urgent care unit. I say referrred as my name was called by a nurse at the exit clutching my notes and told to walk to the unit. This could have been handled very differently. The findings at the walk in centre had not been matched at AE so without knowing it at the time I was viewed as a 1 on a scale of 1-100. (100 being critical)

I then sat in the urgent care unit for three and a half hours. First waiting to see a doctor then a blood test and then a further review. At no time did any one say your wait will be extended because you are least urgent so others will leapfrog your case. Nor was I given the chance to leave with the information to date so as to seek an appointment at my own surgery. The communication is very , very poor. The pathway for an urgent care unit is not clear. It simply appears a way of moving bodies from AE but in doing so it loses the relationship with the patient and you become lost in the system. A system that operates lethargically at best.