"Waste of time!"

My son was having real difficulty weight-bearing because of a painful foot. We were advised to go to WGH Minor Injuries, rather than Stoke A & E. On arrival, my son's details were taken, as well as information about the nature of his pain. We informed the receptionists that there had not been any significant event that had triggered the pain, but that it had gradually worsened over five days. The hospital was incredibly busy and we waited 2.5 hours to be seen. Once we saw a doctor, we were told that they suspected my son had a stress fracture and needed an X-ray, but because there was no triggering event it could not be classed as an injury and therefore they would not X-ray him there! As this is hospital policy, we could have saved 2.5 hours of waiting if the receptionist could had informed us of this when we arrived, as they took all the relevant information. If we had lied and said the injury was from football or something, we could have saved ourselves a huge amount of time and hassle! We drove all the way to Stoke A & E and waited for another 3.5 hours to be seen, because WGH would not give us any documentation to say my son had already been examined. The staff at Stoke were absolutely flabbergasted that the X-ray could not have been performed at WGH.