"X-ray without appointment - results delayed"

My GP referred me for an X-ray without an appointment.

Neither X-ray nor Radiology are included in this website’s list of departments, which seems like an oversight given how many people use such services. Another website’s failing is that text entered all to easily disappears and cannot be recovered.

I arrived about 30 minutes after the start of the open session for X-rays and waited in uncomfortable conditions for almost an hour. It was fine day and all the available seats meant sitting next to a sunlit window in a room with inadequate ventilation. As the waiting area is alongside one for a pharmacy, there is a lot of noise. I strained to hear the name of the patients being called.

When I wanted a toilet, I searched in vain for a sign. Eventually I asked reception and was directed to one within the clinical area. Why the lack of signs.

Staff were pleasant and efficient, for which I admire them. The reception people put up with the noise and the clinical staff have to shout names over it.

I was told my GP would have the results in a week. I made an appointment with them ten days after the X-ray. The surgery hadn’t received and relayed to me that the X-rays are running late at Northwick Park. I assume this, like many other faltering services across the UK, is due to insufficient funding despite the promise from the current ruling party that the NHS would be safe in their hands.

The result of late X-rays, apart from holding up my diagnosis and therefore getting onto the waiting list for treatment, is a busy GP having a wasted appointment and having to get his staff to chase the results.

If all non-urgent X-rays are behind, I imagine many other people have had their time wasted and treatment delayed.