"Orthopaedics"

After my daughter had broken her ankle, a week later she was given a follow up appointment with Orthopaedics. When she had her original X-rays the doctor said that her ankle was too swollen to properly see the fractured bone and that she would need another X-ray during her follow up appointment. This never happened - the doctor seemed more interested in trying to get through people as quickly as psychically possible. They told her the same thing the A&E staff did which was keep the ankle elevated with an ice compress. Whilst very briefly checking my daughters ankle, the doctor failed to pay attention to the fact it was incredibly sore, red, swollen and burning hot - the clear sign of an infection! I asked the doctor if the ankle should be so sore and hot to touch, and they claimed it was perfectly normal! My daughter told them that the pain was getting worse, which they didn't seem to care about. The next day my daughters ankle had become worse and she was in a lot of pain. We managed to get her into our GP as an emergency and our GP was disgusted to see that the doctor at Orthopaedics had failed to notice and do anything about the growing infection in my daughters ankle. Our GP provided my daughter with strong antibiotics and told us to contact Orthopaedics the next day and demand another appointment and an MRI scan to make sure the infection was not in the bone. Orthopaedics tried to fob me off by saying they had an appointment the next day at 9 am, then suddenly they didn't have one and they couldn't give out appointments just like that. They also said that they needed a referral from my GP for an MRI scan, even though it was their department who failed to provide a duty of care to begin with! Also with the wait for a referral being what it is, god knows what damage might of occurred to my daughters ankle by the time they decide to do their job! And one amazing thing that I gained from the receptionist at Orthopaedics was that the doctor was probably in a rush and lackluster that day was because it was their last day in the job!! What an utter joke! I am once again completely disgusted with the complete lack of care this hospital too regularly supplies. I have made complaints to PALS and hopefully with more persistence my daughter might get the scan she needs. I just hope that the antibiotics do their trick and the infection stays away from the bone in the meantime.