Anything else?
The turn around time is great, I was only in there for about an hour this morning, but it comes at a price. The time I spent speaking with the 'A&E Practitioner' was around 90 seconds. During that brief spell she prodded my foot to find out where it hurt. And that was it, I was sent for an x-ray with no more diagnostic interaction. At no point was I able to tell her what the pain was like or when it hurt, there simply wasn't time and frankly, shouldn't they have been the first questions I was asked? When I went for the x-ray I was asked "You think you've injured your foot?", as if I'd just popped in on the off-chance. Clearly the A&E Practitioner hadn't taken my injury seriously; I *know* I've injured my foot, the pain I'm feeling when I walk tells me that, I'm just not sure how. There is a distinct difference in not knowing *if* I've injured my foot and not knowing *how* I've injured my foot. Nothing showed up on the x-ray so I got an "It's not broken." And that was the end of the diagnosis. I managed to squeeze a question in before she left, asking what else it could be. Her reply was, "I don't know. Rest and elevate it and if it isn't better in a week or two see your GP, they'll have to investigate it." So, what, unless your bone is sticking out of your foot they don't even try to diagnose an injury now? We don't have an urgent care clinic/ walk in centre in Durham, I have to wait 4 weeks to get an appointment with my GP, what exactly am I supposed to do about a foot injury that isn't visible to the naked eye but feels like it's burning around my metatarsal bone when I walk? I don't think my injury was taken seriously at all, I think the A&E Practitioner got the wrong end of the stick, mistaking my not knowing how I'd injured my foot and the general lack of pain when prodding my foot for me not actually being in that much pain at all, whereas I am experiencing rather a lot of pain when I walk. I think from that point on any concerns were dismissed. If she'd bothered to find out when it hurt and how much I probably wouldn't need to write a negative review, I wouldn't be feeling as if I were dismissed for not having the right kind of injury.
"Short waiting times, but at a cost."
About: University Hospital Of North Durham University Hospital Of North Durham Durham DH1 5TW
Posted via nhs.uk
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