AFTER going to A&E with stabbing pain in his eye and waiting four hours, a man has criticised the 111 service.

Scott King feels he has been messed around by the emergency system after waiting for a specialist that was not due to start work for four hours.

On Friday Morning Scott King, from Worcester, rang the 111 service who told him his symptoms were urgent and that he needed to be seen within the hour, instructing him to go to A&E.

But after waiting four hours in Worcestershire Royal Hospital’s A&E he learned the eye specialist did not start working until that time.

Mr King said: “When I got seen they said, ‘you wouldn’t have been seen until now anyway.”

“They are sending people with urgent issues then they are having to wait for hours, but then are told the staff are not there anyway.”

The 31-year-old later learned that he has something lodged behind his eye and has scratches behind his eye.

When he was seen by a doctor, Mr King said the care was perfectly good: “The staff actually were very good. It is just the organisation of the system that is a joke.”

Mr King thinks it would have been more appropriate for the service to send him to the out of hours GP service.

Mr King said: “If you go to the out of hours GP, you get your time slot and there’s no issues.”

“A lot of the people in A&E probably don’t need to be there. I think they should look at, if they are classed as a non-serious case, if there is a way to shorten the time down to make it more beneficial for the people that do need to be there at that time.”

"The system needs to be improved" Mr King said.

Another issue Mr King had was the waiting timer in the A&E waiting room which he says kept changing.

“The timer was at two hours upon arrival then went up to three hours 44mins.”

Later the clock reset back to zero then it changed to 34 minutes before returning to zero.

The Worcester News understands that waiting times in A&E are subject to change as patients with more serious conditions must be prioritised.

The 111 service was not able to comment in time for the deadline.