"Lack of respect and contact in East Surrey A&E"

Arrived at Redhill hospital at 8.45pm on a Sunday evening recently. I had been suffering with suspected tonsillitis for a number of days and things had got so bad that i needed some antibiotics - my wife is a nurse so knew exactly what I needed. I was told that I would need to wait 30 minutes for the assesment nurse and then another 90 minutes for the doctor. I saw the assesment nurse after 50 minutes who didn't even check my throat and was unable to take my blood pressure (in front of me wife who was appalled).

After a further 90 miutes I was told that I was in the next 3 patients, after a further hour it was a very condescending administrator who told me that they had just got on shift and that I will be dealt with when possible but they were sure it would be in the next few people...An hour later I still hadn't been seen and the same administrator seemed totally disinterested in helping. Eventually I got called to see a doctor who also had just been on duty 10 minutes and noticed I had been waiting well over 4 hours. They took a quick look at me and then left leaving the nurse to give me half a course of penicillin!

In my opinion the assessment nurse behaved incompetently, the administrators were rude and the doctor unable to prescribe me the right dose of antibiotic.

Throughout the process we had to put up with a person in handcuffs and 2 incredibly unprofessional police officers who seemed to me be more interested in chatting to the others in the waiting room than controlling this person.

Having used the hospital for the birth of our children and various broken bones etc this was a truly shocking experience. One that could have been resolved in no time if the assessment nurse had quickly passed my case to a nurse who was able to prescribe antibiotics.