"poor quality receptionist, good nursing staff"

What I liked

The nurse who examined ,me was professional, polite and pleasant and i was satisfied with the diagnosis she came to

What could be improved

1. Ensure that reception staff focus on the job in hand

2. Ensure that patient's names are input correctly by the receptionist

3. Ensure that staff tell the patient what to do next (eg report to reception after Xray). Why not put a notice up sating this?

When I arrived there were only 2 or 3 other patients waiting. I do understand that patients must be seen in order of priority, but after waiting for over an hour during which time new patients were constantly being seen before me, i queried this and it was clear that the receptionist had made an error. However she did not apologise, she went to see the nursing staff and came back to reception without any explanation or comment.

During the whole time i was there the receptionist seemed more interested in filing and kept patients waiting at the hatch whilst they dealt with administration. I then was seen within about 10 minutes. I was sent for X ray and the lady who greeted us on X ray was very helpful and took the trouble to let us know that the computer request had come through for my X ray. When we left X ray, no one told me to report to the receptionist again. So I sat down and waited and again -for about an hour. At this point I moved my seat and made a point of catching the eye of the receptionist. They asked if i had been seen and when i explained i had been seen and X rayed they complained that i had not reported to them on my return from X ray.

I was then seen by the nurse again who was really helpful but could not initially find my records as the receptionist had put my name in incorrectly to the system (leaving a space in the middle of my surname).

Anything else?

I do recommend Altrincham general hospital small injuries unit and i have had good service there in the past. But on this occasion, i felt very dissatisfied with the receptionist's attitude. Not only did they not put my details through the system meaning that i had a longer wait than necessary, but also spelt my name incorrectly (despite my spelling out) and did not apologise.

In addition there should be a notice to tell patients who have been to x ray to report back to reception. If there is in fact such a notice it needs to be in a place where patients will see it.

My visit would have lasted about 45 minutes if all had been done properly, but in the end it took over 2 and a half hours due to simple incompetence