"A mixture of"

What I liked

Previously, the parking system great as you never knew how many hours you were going to have to wait to be seen.

What could be improved

1/ Communication. My first visit to the doctor was Jan 2011 due to a pulled back/minor slipped disc. In the November I slipped two discs by hardly moving, and had to spend a month in bed. I had to go to a UK Care scan mobile unit in Salford centre, and then drive to a Rochdale UK Care mibile unitto receive my MRI results a few weeks later. Was then refered to the consultant at Salford Royal (as I was told this was the best). My scans and details were lost after an hour or so they fund them. He was very unsympathetic when I got upset due to the constant pain and he snapped 'Well, it is a painful condition'. I have been to see this consultant several times. At Easter this year I went for an epidural which was supposed to help. I don't think that the ainkilling injection work and it was the most excrutiatingly painful proceedure. It also didn't work .The last time he requested another MRI, which I had done in June 2012. I chased feedback my my own doctor who wrote several letters to the consultant. This was as the consultant's secretary was on leave of 8 weeks when I tried to contact her. The next apointment came at the end of November 2012. He asked me why I had taken so long to come and see him- after all he had been taking on new patients as he was 'quite quiet'. The answer that I was given to my back problem was that 'It may get better on it's own'. Considering I've had the sciatica for 7 years now, and have slipped discs 5 times in 2 years it's hard to believe..... I have requested a second opinion form Stepping Hill - my local hospital.

2/ Waiting times. Each time I visited there was between 45minute and 4 hour waiting times meaning that I had to book a whole day off work each time.

3/ Waiting room chairs in the Spinal surgery department need to be softer. They are very hard on painful spines!

4/ Waiting room decor- clean but very scruffy and old with peeling paint.

5/ Privacy. The door was not shut during consultations, and you could hear everyone's condition

Anything else?

Parking system has now changed to normal Pay & Display. I arrived with no change as I was expecting the old system, and had to driveto the nearby shops and machines did not take cards / give change.

Also the 'take a ticket and wait' idea in the department. It never got used and we were supposed to have times booked anyway. Seems like a waste of money for that department. No triage.

A farce from start to finish. Was very dissapointed.