"Lack of support"

Recently my child fractured their ankle and badly damaged the ligaments.  We were seen by the caring nursing staff at the ED who organized an X-ray to discover the fracture. They put my child in a boot and told us to come back in two weeks to ensure that it was healing properly.

After having to practically beg the local GP to give us a referral, he had his surgery fax it through as we had an appointment that day.

Upon arrival at the X-ray department, we are asked for the referral. When I advised them that the doctors were faxing it through after 3pm the staff member tells us there is nothing they can do without the referral. I explained the situation and they said that we could sit and wait for the ED to put us through but they were not prepared to assist us in being X-rayed today.

At this point, I tell them that we are running a risk of this injury not healing properly if we simply leave it and they did not seem to care.

As I turned on my heel to leave they mumbled something which could have been go jump off a cliff for all I know. I left with my children. I later rang the doctor's surgery who advised that they had spoken to the staff member at the X-ray department and the referral was actually on their fax machine while we were there.

So if this person had even just checked the fax machine, this complaint would be unnecessary, but it seems to me that apparently, 3:40pm is way too close to home time for some people to do their job.

The X-ray department had my contact number and could have easily called me and told me that they had located the referral but chose to ignore the problem they had created and the risk of my child's injury not healing properly is very real but, it seems, of no real concern to them.

To say that we feel like less than second-class citizens is an understatement.