When my mom fell and broke her hand while we were on vacation, we looked for just a walk-in urgent…read morecare clinic for her to go to, but found that they were inside the hospitals in England. We had a full day + a travel day left in our trip, so wanted to get it take care of as soon as possible. Unfortunately, St. Thomas was unable to help us due to their absolutely extreme and unacceptable wait times.
We arrived around 8 PM and waited in an outdoor but tented queue for about 45 minutes before being checked in to the emergency room. Signage was not very clear, so we really weren't sure we were in the right place until we got to the front of the line. There were people in line with us with all types of absolutely terrible ailments, and a few that looked like they needed to be lying down, or at least sitting, but all wheelchairs were full.
When we finally made it inside, a lovely nurse named Elle checked us in. She was fantastic and so helpful and friendly. She took some notes down, and offered medication if needed. We sat for about 20 more minutes before being called to another station where we told another person all the same things, and were sent down the hall to "urgent care" where they warned us it would be a 3-4 hour wait. And there we sat. And sat. And sat for about 3.5 hours - observing only 4 people being called back, having x-rays, and then coming back to the waiting room to sit. They made several announcements over the intercom during our visit asking people not to ask reception for a wait time update as it only hinders their ability to work through the line. I believe we only saw 2 people leave with, what appeared to be, a solution to their injury. After nearly 4 hours and absolutely no end in sight, we decided to call it quits, and try to wait and seek help when we returned to the States. Before we left, the receptionist had us go in and speak to the nurse practitioner on-duty who gave us some tips and a sling. She was lovely as well, and seemed sorry that she wasn't able to help us.
I know that England's healthcare system plays a role in the terrible experience that we received here, but we sat in this waiting room for hours in hard plastic chairs (still with plastic walls separating them, by the way, making it impossible to talk to the person next to you), and the water jug was completely empty. The ER waiting room had vending machines, so I ended up going back there at one point to get a drink, but my goodness, they aren't even providing the bare minimum here. My mom was in a lot of pain, but there were people here with all sorts of wounds, waiting all night just for a few stitches.
After returning home to the US, my mom was able to visit an urgent care and only wait about 15 minutes to see a doctor. She's all squared away now (or on the way to it, at least) but this is such an extremely terrible way to do things as she was in a lot of pain for days.
