"Nothing"

What I liked

Nothing

What could be improved

I attended the out patients dept to see a general surgeon.

I picked Walsall as the waiting time for an appointment was very short compared to other local hospitals, even though it was not the closest place I could have been treated.

After spending ages trying to park the car in what can only be described as a nightmare- the OPD was even worse.

When I arrived there were lots of people waiting to see this consultant even though I was just in advance of my appointment time. I asked the recepionist if he was running to time where she smiled and said he always runs late!

After waiting for 45 minutes another member of the public came out of another waiitng area and said to her friend she still had not been seen ONE AND HALF HOURS after her appointmentime. When at this point another elderly gent got up and said he could beat that as he'd been waiting since 1410. It was now 1615hours!!.

At this point I got up and decided I was not waiting another 2 hours to see a consultant and informed the recepionist of this.

The fact that a consultant can keep patients waiting for this long is totally unacceptable - is my time any less precious than his? No -

I took annual leave to go to the appointment, travelled some distance and paid for car parking and had a completely wasted journey.

I will not be returning to Walsall Out patients dept.

What could have been improved ? Everything- the wait area , the car parking, the space in a 'corridor ' to be designated as a clinic and finally the fact that ambulance staff were bringing very ill patients on stretchers through an already busy place who deserved more diginity than to be paraded through a busy corridor full of people waiitng for appointments.