On the eve of local elections, I feel like recounting something that happened last week. After a great evening on a bike ride, we stopped of at local playground for my son to burn some energy off. After a few minutes, he comes screaming up, rigid, and sits on my wife’s lap. He’s rubbing the back of the head, and we look in his mouth and his teeth are swimming in blood. As we tell him this (a mistake, on hindsight), he cries and flicks his head back. As he does this, I can clearly see the split under his chin, and the blood starts flowing freely.
 I cycle back double-quick, leaving Jacky to care for him. I jump in the car, drive back to the playground and bundle him in, and go to Derbyshire Royal Infirmary’s A & E. After a brief chat with the receptionist, we sit down and wait. There’s quite a few people around us in various states of disrepair, all seeking help. After 20 minutes, a lady comes out from behind the desk and informs us there will be a 3 to 4 hour wait to be seen.
3 to 4 hours.
I’m unsure how much of our money has been ploughed into the NHS, but this is not good enough. It was a Thursday night, not an alcohol-sodden weekend day and night. With all the millions that have been put into the NHS, is this the best they can do?
As it goes, I bundled my son into the car and went to the Derbyshire Children’s Hospital. After a wait (but certainly not a 3 to 4 hour wait), they cleaned him up, glued(!) his chin back together and sent us home.
Even though my son is fine now, with a manly Indiana Jones-style scar on his chin, I’m still very annoyed with the piss-poor staffing levels in our NHS.
