"A bit disappointed"

Anything else?

On the 3rd of January my daughter (2 years old) got an elbow dislocated. It had already happened in the past, it's an age-related problem which will solve when she gets about 4, but meanwhile every time it happens we need to get to A&E for the elbow to be put back into place.

We arrived at 12.30, with the bus; we had to wait for more than 3 hours before my little one was seen by a doctor, and it took him about 2 minutes to solve the problem. We were dismissed at 16.00.

What was annoying is that every time I enquired with the receptionist about how long we were still supposed to wait, the answer was always "Oh, she's got only one patient before her" or "Oh, she's going to be the next one". This prevented me from getting to the bar and buy some food - the little one was hungry, and I am 35 weeks pregnant, and quite evident. We had to rely on the chocolate bars of the automatic machine outside the entrance - not a healthy nor filling option.

I have no idea of the priorities stuff gives, but elsewhere pregnant women and small kids tend to be high on the list, provided there are no urgent cases to solve. We saw plenty of patients arriving after us with no evident signs of suffering being admitted before us: that made the waiting time seem even longer. Only at about 14.30 (2 hours after our arrival) we were allowed in the children's unit waiting room - which at least made the waiting easier for the little one.

I got back home feeling very unwell myself, with backache and dizziness. I would have expected just a bit more of consideration; if they knew the waiting time was long, they could have been clear about it so at least we could have got out for some fresh air and some food.