"staffing levels poor"

Anything else?

I visited A&E with my son after he fractured his hand. The Dr we saw initially was brilliant, (a locum) he spoke to us like human beings, explained everything really well and couldn't have been nicer. We were seen in x-ray very promptly and reported back to the Dr again for assessment of the x-rays. He explained that the fracture needed to be seen by the orthopaedic Dr on call, he contacted said Dr and explained that he would be in A&E as soon as possible. We waited another 3 hours to be seen. In between time our initial doctor got back to us many times to apologise for the wait and to reassure us that we hadn't been forgotten. The Dr we were waiting for was also covering the ward and when we actually saw him he was being bleeped and seemed to be very harassed and busy. Being a former nurse myself, I can understand the pressures on doctors who are covering wards as well as A&E but that doesn't help the patients. There needs to be more staff made available, if a doctor can't spare 10 minutes to see a patient then there is something wrong with the system. The nurse we saw in the plaster room was excellent, very friendly and efficient. We were in the department from 14.40 to 19.00hrs.