General Writing Sample Task 1 #29

You went to the local hospital’s Emergency Department with your young child who had severe stomach pains. You had to wait for almost four hours before your daughter was treated by a doctor and, while you were waiting, you were constantly ignored by the other staff.

Write a letter to the Registrar, complaining about the service you received.

• You should write at least 150 words.
• Allow yourself 20 minutes for this task.
• You do not need to write your own address.
• Begin your letter as follows: Dear Sir or Madam . . . ,

model answer:

Dear Sir or Madam

I am writing to complain about the treatment my daughter and I received when we visited the casualty department in your hospital last weekend.

During the afternoon, my daughter developed severe pains in the stomach. Because it was Sunday, my normal doctor was not in his surgery, so we went to the hospital casualty department. When we reached the Enquiry counter, it was obvious that my daughter was unwell as she was screaming with pain. However, the Receptionist just told us to sit down and wait.

Over the next four hours, I constantly asked how long it would take for a doctor to see my daughter, but the Receptionist was quite rude and didn’t seem to care very much. Eventually, we did see a doctor and my little girl had to undergo tests to see if she had appendicitis. However, I was really angry because the doctor said he had not seen anyone for over an hour, so the Receptionist wasn’t doing her job properly.

I would be grateful if you could investigate this terrible service to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Yours faithfully

Comment:

This letter was written by a native English speaker, and it is occasionally good for students to see what a native speaker can achieve in the given writing time.