"Outpatient clinic chaos"

Was at the new children's hospital today for an outpatient clinic with my son. Lovely looking building but completely impractical.

Checked in with very friendly helpful receptionist at outpatients reception, who told us to go through to Clinic Area 2 and let the nurse know we'd arrived. Which we did, but it was a really busy clinic, and it wasn't clear that the (student) nurse I spoke to was attached to the right consultant to know what to do with us. Meanwhile a clump of confused parents had gathered around the desk and were all trying to find out what to do next.

The waiting area looks lovely, bright and airy with interactive things for kids, but there weren't many seats and it was noisy and hot. None of which helped when staff were trying to call people in for their appointments. It was incredibly difficult to hear because sound is lost into the atrium. Staff really need to shout loudly, and it might be helpful to have a visual display that shows names too.

There was a real sense of frustration in the waiting area about a lack of information around waiting times that seemed to be upsetting some parents. Other families were complaining that the letter had stated a 2pm appointment, and were concerned that it had got to 2:45pm with no explanation about what was happening. Families sitting near me were seemingly very upset that it seemed everyone had been invite to attend at the same time (2pm) so couldn't possibly all be seen then. People were getting really upset about this, and rightly so in my opinion.

Our consultation (when it came) was very good. But the experience in the waiting room was really poor, so not a good start!