"nobody had even looked at the wound"

My wife who is physically disabled through neuro surgery manages her way inside our house on a rollator - outside it is wheelchair. She has particularly poor balance and falls would not be uncommon.

On Friday evening she fell backwards and struck the back if her head on the fridge door. I could quickly see that she had burst open the scalp. There was lot of blood and I knew it would need stitched/stapled.

I immediately called the ambulance service but after 1.5 hours I decided to contact STH but was told not to come as they were closing within 30 mins.

My son and I then lifted my wife into the car and drove to CAH with "the code" in my hand. Thinking we would get an easy pass we were told to take a seat and then we were called to triage. Nowadays triage seems to be no more than confirming your name, DOB and whether you have any allergies. The nurse would not even look at the wound. The time was 2 hours since my wife sustained her injury.  

Fast forward to five hours later, and we were called to triage again to have obs taken - then back to the waiting room with no examination of the wound. Meanwhile my wife is sat in the wheel chair the entire time and weary of the whole ordeal.

In the morning, (12 hours after my wife sustained her injury) I had had enough and went to reception to ask who I could speak to. I was sent to the green area where I stated our case (politely). I really couldn't understand how this would take so long and that nobody had even looked at the wound. My wife (on anti convulsant medication) received her morning dose.

An hour later we were called to green area - at this stage my wife was quickly going down hill and I could clearly see her deteriorating in front of me and I feared a seizure.

There was a lovely female Doctor that attended my wife and we were a total of 20 mins in the treatment room!

Mid morning, 13.5 after my wife's injury, we left the hospital to return home. We both spent until the evening in bed trying to catch up on lost sleep.

Its a day later now as I write this and my wife has been unable to do anything other than lie down - she is utterly exhausted.

My complaint here is how does it take 13.5 hours to get 4 staples in a procedure that takes 20 minutes - for me there is something fundamentally wrong for such a simple procedure