Kingston Hospital - A&E Galsworthy Road, Kingston Upon Thames KT2 7QB

"There is a doctor working at Kingston hospital A&E who seems to think that throwing a box of medication at someone is acceptable. I have read at least one other review who also experienced this. He also sent home an 89 year old female who had had a fall at home saying “nothing wrong with her, full body CT scan results are clear”. We returned with this lady 4 days later after her experiencing extreme pain with every move and guess what? …………..two fractures in her lower spine. She has now been kept in there. A complaint will be submitted"

"Called 111 to ask for advice as I tore a post-op stitch. They gave me an appointment slot 30 mins later (10 pm on a Thursday) so i grabbed my keys and ran out the door to make it on time. I get to the hospital and the receptionist tells me she doesn’t know why 111 tells everyone to make an appointment if they don’t do appointments (while being surrounded by posters that say otherwise, mind you). It took 1.5 hours to see a nurse in triage. She didn’t even look at the post-op stitches I had torn. She asked me basically the same questions 111 asked and sent me to the general waiting area. I asked her how many hours it would be (i could go home and back later if it was too long) and she wouldn’t say more than “at least 3 hours”. I’ve now been here for over 10 hours and I haven’t seen anyone else or gotten any update yet. All this because 111 told me I should get the wound restitched within the hour and not to wait to go to a walk in in the morning. On top of it the waiting area is noisy, bright and the chairs horribly uncomfortable. I’ve been to hospitals all over the world and I’m fairly certain this is the worst I’ve ever had to wait. Appalling."

"Two stars because I was seen to within 3 hours, which is pretty good timing. However, I have never experienced such lack of empathy, compassion or basic bedside manner, ever, than I did from the Kingston A&E department. Yes, the doctors are manically busy with patients all desperate to be seen to. Plus, the doctors have been through the pandemic and who knows what else - they have done what many could not! BUT - I have had the unfortunate experience of being to a number of different hospital A&E departments, many of which were busier - and have never witnessed such dismissive, rude and cold ‘care’ before. (This was in the urgent treatment area). There was no sense of urgency, but the doctors were of course clearly busy. They did make a point of loudly discussing whether it was new systems or just more people coming through, remarking that they have ‘more people staring at them’ multiple times. They chatted about the whether their department needed more space, staff or computers and said that it was so hot and their working conditions weren’t humane. I was under a blanket freezing in sopping wet clothes with fingers changing colour and getting very cold - which I had to request, along with pain meds after 2 hours because my injuries were feeling worse and no one had so much as looked in my direction. Zero eye contact. Ignoring anyone who tried to get their attention, although a young person with a cold sore and a lady with hay fever did get fast treatment. Gentlemen with head injury next to me wasn’t pleased about that. The doctor who saw me had just started his shift, so I thought he would be in a better mood - he was not. He was rough, didn’t ask any questions except where the pain was while being very rough and careless with my injury, shoving my arm painfully. Later, when X-rays came back - he literally chucked medication at me and flippantly gave me half a sentence about next steps. He didn’t say what was wrong, just turned around and carried on his computer. I was in shock, tired and sore and just walked away, although really wish I hadn’t and actually asked the questions I had but another patient was hovering within arms reach. This wasn’t done in private, but with me having to go behind the desk. Unacceptable for a professionals trained to care for people. Not asking for much, just a little eye contact, compassion for all of those around them and to take a moment to ensure patient understands issue and treatment plan. I felt so rushed, still in a blanket and somewhat immobile, that I just shuffled on in disbelief. Not good enough Kingston. (Monday night)"