"Communication in acccident and emergency"

My 87 yrs old father was admitted by ambulance to A&E and he was left on a trolley for about an hour before a cubicle could be found. We were then left there with no one telling us when or what to expect until I went searching for somone. After 6 hours he was discharged but this was late at night and if I hadnt been there how would he have got home? you feel a pain asking and know that they are busy, but no one talks to you. It appears that a nurse is allocated to a patient, surely it would make more sense for them to introduce themselves when first admitted and then explain that it might be about 4 hours that you will have to wait, then at least you can plan for this. i fully appreciate that by the nature of the department there can be no guarentees of time, but by communicating with patietns it actually could reduce the already high levels of anxiety that patients and thier carers or family face.

Also with the car park payment system as it is, you dont know initially how long you are going to be and therefore you keep pumping £2.50 (x3) into the machine in the hope that the system will mean that people are not left for what does seem to be unacceptable amounts of time.