"Waiting time A&E Wrexham hospital"

My son was away on an educational visit to Bryntysilio, he had a bad fall and landed on his knee. His knee immediately became swollen and staff was concerned over the amount of pain he was in; therefore called myself (at home in Walsall) to inform us.

We made the decision to make our way to Wrexham hospital, aware of the current two hour waiting time. After 90 mins we arrived, relieving staff of their duties and waited with our son. The waiting room wasn't full, and we noticed there were no staff in sight.

After 4 hrs of my son waiting we enquired: being informed we were 5 th in line to be seen. At this point not one person had been seen!

We witnessed: 1. an elderly male showing signs of distress; due to the catheter bag he had in situ clearly showing blood in his urine. 2. An elderly female with head and facial bruising, swelling and grazed areas. 3. A 5 yr old girl with head injury in distress. 4. A female at 19 week pregnant with blood loss, justifiably very concerned. We also were informed 5 ambulances were waiting outside with pt's requiring treatment, one whom had been in the ambulance over 3 hrs.

This wait continued for all of us for in excess of 6 hrs. People were leaving without being seen, the waiting room was unhygienic with only one bottle of sanitizer (which wasn't dispensing). No one was offered a drink and both drink machines were out of order!

All of which is a critical disaster waiting to happen. The lack of staff was unbelievable, we never saw a doctor and only one staff nurse was seen in all this time. For us we had no alternative but to assess our son ourselves. He had suffered a knee injury and simply needed an x ray to check all was OK. However, this was not offered and we were waiting to see a doctor after we had been assessed in triage. Why not send us for an x ray after being assessed, a doctor couldn't assess my son fully until an X-ray had been taken. We were waiting for a doctor and then I presume would have had to endure further waits for a routine X-ray. For us we wasn't put at risk by the unacceptable waiting; however no one person knew this as he wasn't medically treated or diagnosed by a healthcare professional.

Myself and my husband both have now lost time off work, and our 2 daughters losing a days education, plus my son taken back to his educational trip at Bryntysilio not fully cleared of injury!

I was deeply concerned for other people with major health concerns who were waiting 6 plus hours to be seen, esp the pregnant lady: whom not only was at risk herself but her unborn baby also.

This is a disgrace, we were ill informed - actually we were never informed or apologised too - or any explanation offered as to why we were receiving such poor services.

Wrexham hospital need to explain this and, more so, ensure this doesn't happen again. I hope to receive some kind of acknowledgement of my complaint and also an apology. We had to travel back at 7 am this morning, due to having to sleep in a lay by for 2 hours to remain safe for the journey home.

We are at a loss in the services we didn't receive, financially at a loss, and more so, my faith in using other services other than my own has been negatively impacted and one I shall not do again!