"Sudden acute pain"

I went to A&E at 6.00 on Monday morning with acute chest and stomach pain, I was admitted straight away and the staff were all very attentive and professional, a special shout out to the nurse and doctor who let me cry on them. I was given, along with pain killing treatments, blood tests, X-Rays, ECG's, and a CT scan. before being moved up to the General surgery ward for observation and to await results.

My pain was treated without need of surgery, and I was told at 3.30 that I would be given some medication to take away, once this was ready I could go home.

This was where the hospital let itself down, it took the pharmacy 5 hours to get the tablets to me. All the nurses and other patients on my ward told me the pharmacy was a nightmare but I really thought 1-2 hours would have been more than enough, surely if this is ongoing it needs more staff.

I have one other gripe, £2.00 per hour parking, my wife had already put £14 into the meters before I told her to go home, There should be an upper limit of say £10 for patients who don't know how long they are going to be.

But don't let these things distract you from the fact that the treatment I received was excellent, professional, and thanks to our NHS system.... free. A big thank you to every member of staff involved in my treatment.