"Attendance at the emergency department / minor injuries unit"

I accompanied my elderly year old neighbour to the Emergency Department / Minor Injuries Unit at Wishaw General Hospital. She had sustained quite a deep skin tear to her lower leg. We  arrived early evening hrs and at around 3 hours later she was triaged as a minor injury requiring wound cleansing, steristrips and a dressing - a nursing task.  The nurse said she would  work through her triage list and then the dressing would be attended to. Around 2 and a half hours later we heard staff tell another patient that minor injuries was now closed. My neighbour asked the reception staff why she hadn't been seen before that service closed and was told rather brusquely that because of her age she had to be processed through the main Department  - no one had indicated previously that there was an age criterion for minor injuries. She was eventually attended to at around after midnight and left the department soon after - almost a 7 hour wait for a procedure that then took less than 15mins. Whilst we acknowledge the current strain on the NHS and could see that the department was busy we feel that this was an inordinate and  unnecessary length of time to wait for a relatively simple but appropriate minor injury to be treated. In addition (and perhaps to some might seem trivial) the drinks vending machine was out of order and the other took only coins - a card option would have been helpful. 7 hours is a long time for an elderly person to go without food or fluids. We appreciate our NHS and the valuable work done by all categories of staff but  we would just like to hear the Service Manager's thoughts on this experience.