The NHS doesn't seem to be functioning very efficiently

On Tuesday I injured my foot. On Wednesday, I went to see my GP and he referred me to get it X-rayed since there is a chance that I've broken something. It's now Thursday and I have spent all day phoning the radiology department at the Royal Hants Hospital to see if they have received the fax from my GP's surgery, only to be told each time that it had not yet arrived. Eventually, they called me back and explained that actually they had it all along; it had just been put into the wrong pile. Fantastic, I thought. Now I can get an appointment. Oh no: that particular department are refusing to X-ray me because my injury was sustained within the last seven days and they don't deal with injuries that recent. I'm told that I must go to A&E instead. Given that it's now 4:30 pm and I don't want to be sitting in a waiting room in A&E all evening while more urgent cases are dealt with, I've decided to go in tomorrow.

Now, I'm by no means an urgent case and there's no reason why I ought to be going to A&E, the name of which suggests that it should be for people who have had Accidents and forEmergencies. The last time I stepped foot in an A&E department was with my grandad who had just been rushed there in the back of an ambulance after he collapsed at home. The time before that was to see my Dad who had just been pronounced dead. The thought of a moron like me clogging the place up because he has a slightly sore foot pisses me right off.

The trouble is that my doctor said that I should get my foot X-rayed just in case so that's what I'm going to do. I hope that sitting in a waiting room all tomorrow morning is even more fun than ranting about stuff on the internet.