"Eye department Outpatients"

Anything else?

I used to go to Birch Hall for my outpatients appointments, the staff were efficient and helpful. This time my appointment was moved to Rochdale Infirmary, the same staff were there but the care was of a lower quality.

They did not realise that my appointment involved a scan this time and now I was adding to the existing queue. Within an hour I had my scan, but was told to wait in another area to see the doctor.

There were about 15 patients waiting in this room. It was an hour and 50 minutes before I was called to a doctor. In that elapsed time many more people came into the waiting area and were attended to, some after only a short 10 minute wait.

One female patient was only in the waiting area 10 minutes, she complained to a nurse and was then the next patient to be seen. My file seemed to never get off the bottom of the pile.

When I was eventually seen, the doctor did not read my file that was on the desk but simply asked me what was wrong? I gave a brief explanation, that I had macular degeneration particularly in one eye. They quickly examined each eye and then said there was nothing they could do for me and I was to be discharged. The doctor gave me a small sheet of gridded paper for each eye so I could draw the distortion on it ( been there, done it all before). I had, no advice except to come back if the worst eye suddenly deteriorates, if I did the eye would probably be too damaged before I was ever seen to at this place. This seemed to be a very quick and uncaring economical decision.

I was told to take a sheet with my details on it to the reception desk. There was nobody manning the desk, I waited 5 minutes, no one appeared so I just left the form on the desk and left the building. I had been at the hospital just under 4 hours and my parking ticket was about to expire.

The standard of patient care has reached a new low in the eye department.

Should my eye suddenly get worse I will not go to Rochdale Infirmary at all and can not recommend it, I will be informing my GP of my experience there.