"Diabolical A&E"

My diabetic wife had flashes in her right eye and with the prospect of a detached retina decided to seek urgent help by coming to RUH A&E as Bristol eye hospital was closed. Parked the car in a near empty car park (yet you still charge at our arrival time of 23:00) and walked into a reception that had grills and looked like a prison.

Were told to take a seat. The area was really cold, yet a very warm night outside, and the so called free wifi did not work (no connection at all). According to your website "Your treatment starts as soon as you step into the Emergency Department (A&E). On arrival, you see a specialist emergency nurse called the triage nurse. The triage nurse assesses how serious your condition is".

This did not happen and nobody saw us until just gone 2 a.m., over 3 hours.

We then had to wait another hour to see someone who checked her eye and then said they would have to talk to an on call specialist at the eye hospital in Bristol. Answer was that nothing could be done then and to call at 8:30 in the morning to make an appointment at RUH. So basically wasted over 4 hours and then only could have 4 hours sleep before having to phone at 8:30 in the morning.

To cap it all the machines to pay for parking only take coins - no cards - and we had to pay the above 4 hours rate of £6 to park in any empty car park.

Absolutely the worst hospital experience of our lives and we hope we never have to visit ever again.

Called the Bristol eye hospital in the morning and went there instead