"A Big Headache - getting medication in Northampton"

I am 85 years old and had a raging headache, on Sunday 8th October. Unfortunately no-one is available on Sundays, doctors seem to have a 9 to 5, 8 hour day, 5 days a week. So I called NOMAD – the Northampton Medical Association out of hours service, as the pain I was experiencing was excruciating. I went to NOMAD at Northampton General Hospital and waited 40 minutes to be seen. I am not complaining about the wait as they were very busy. I saw a doctor who examined me very thoroughly. He said the headache was caused by some sort of Neuralgic Pain and said I needed a certain kind of pain relief tablet. He did not have this to hand, the pharmacy was closed because it was a Sunday, so I asked how do I get some? So he issued me with a prescription labelled “urgent” and told me to give this to someone at the police station and someone there would open up the pharmacy for me.

I proceeded to take this down to Northampton Police HQ, but they told me that this system was no longer in use and advised me to go back to Northampton Hospital A&E and to ask for a specific sister called Staff Nurse Cootes. I found her and she was most efficient, unlocking the pharmacy and bringing me some water so I could take the tablets.

I think that this is awful treatment of an 85 year old man to have to endure, traipsing all round Northampton on a Sunday night to get some tablets. The main problem was that the A&E department was bursting, far too busy. There were even 6 people lying on trolleys waiting to be moved, so undignified to be just left there. To top it all as me and my wife left there was a message on the tannoy advising people to go home and come back in the morning due to an emergency.