Head wound 'not urgent'

SAN JUAN resident Massimiliano Licciardello went to A&E when he cut his head on a bathroom mirror.

After the wound was examined and pronounced a non-urgent scratch by a Triage nurse at San Juan Hospital, he was sent to the waiting room. Nearly three hours later and with the wound still bleeding, he left and went to Alicante General instead, Licciardello told the provincial Spanish press.

There they were ‘shocked’ by the deep wound, Licciardello claimed. He was attended to straightaway and left 18 minutes later with four stitches, he said.

When contacted, a San Juan spokesman confirmed the original diagnosis of a non-urgent lesion that was not an open wound and maintained that Licciardello was called two hours after arriving but had left by then.

A dissatisfied Licciardello has now lodged a formal complaint about the treatment he received at San Juan with the regional government’s health department.