"A Child's Visit to Scarborough A&E "

In July 2005, whislt visiting Robin Hood's Bay in North Yorkshire for a weekend away with the family, my young 6 year old son fell from a climbing frame and hurt his arm badly. This was on a Friday evening at 9.30.

As we felt that his arm may have been broken, I took my son to Scarborough A&E. We were quickly processed at reception and sent through to A&E to be met with a patient swearing loudly about how bad the service was. We were immediately taken away to an A&E bed where we had to wait for 50 minutes before being seen. The doctor agreed with my own view that it was probably bruised rather than broken, but was sent to have an x-ray. Having not been given clear directions we soon got lost, but were redirected by a helpful member of staff. At the x-ray we were met by a most wonderful radiologist whose care of my son was first class. Back in A&E the x-ray was quickly reviewed and yes, he had broken his arm. Within ten minutes he had a half-pot out on his arm, bandaged up and we were off back to mum (all within 1 1/2 hours on a Friday evening). We were even given some Calpol as we had none with us.

The information provided at this point could have been improved and it was only because mum is a nurse and could explain why it was important to keep the bandage on and how his arm might swell up that I understood the care that had been given.

Despite this, I was really pleased with the service - especially from the radiologist. The only improvement would have been to improve the information given to us as we left and some books to read or toys to play with during the initial wait in A&E.