Bristol Royal Infirmary 2012-12-18 Person 3 5 0

We arrived at 11.30pm on a Saturday night and eventually managed to negotiate the maze to the waiting room. We were surprised it was not more busy. We registered our friend who had a nasty, displaced wrist fracture that was immediately obvious to me, the triage nurse and radiographer. She was in severe pain and was only given co-codamol. Having a medical background, I asked about stronger medication, but was told it was not possible. The next two hours were very distressing. We had to sit next to our friend who was in agony. My wife was thirsty and the water fountain did not work. No one offered us a drink or showed us where we could get one. I felt like we should be grateful for being there and that we would be seen in turn. I asked several times for pain relief and for a review, particularly as the XRay had confirmed the fracture. At 01:20, I asked the charge nurse to help us. As soon as we were taken to minors and met the excellent locum SHO, everything changed. The environment was nicer, pain relief was given rapidly and we all relaxed. Communication was clear and honest. The SHO was charming, efficient and re-assuring. The orthopaedic team elected to admit our friend, rather than pull the fracture in the Emergency Department. In fact they returned to the ED at 11am the next morning to pull it there. My friend reports that she was “put to sleep in casualty” to pull the arm. “Then waited all day to be allowed home”. I am grateful to all who helped us. It would, however, have been simple to listen and give adequate pain relief on arrival. That would have transformed our experience.