Anything else?
I was admitted via A&E, then moved to several wards and finally ended up in Ward F5 C bay for 5 days. I was on Morphine injections and intravenous paracetamol. I was constantly vomiting and could not hold down water, let alone any pills yet sometimes the nurses would try to give me drugs in pill form to which I told them I couldn't hold down. They didn't listen so I had no choice but to take the pills which would result in me vomiting vilontley each time, and escalating the pain I was in and yet not one of them put this in my notes.They didn't keep track of which anti-sickness drugs worked - they kept giving me one that didn't. They never kept on time with my drugs so I would end up in immense pain, buzzing for help and when I did ask for help they would respond almost immediately to turn off the noisy alarm but would then dissapear and I would often be waiting another 2 hours in immense pain until they returned with meds, once I was left with no IV or drugs for over 4 hours and I was then in a severe state and dehydrated . The most dangerous but almost funny part was there were no name signs above the beds...and as desparate as I was to get out of there one day a hosptial staff member suddenly came up to me in my bed (I was still hooked up to a drip) and announced that I was free to go and I was discharged. Luckily my husband was there to question her (I was barely with it on Morphine) and she then realised she had the wrong patient. As for the hygeine.....the shower and toilet areas (not just in this ward) had at least 4 carboard wee containers used for urine tests all over the place uncovered, however the ironic thing was it was rare for patients names to be written on them so they were useless.When nurses visited me and stuck needles in me or did tests, not one of them used the anti-bacterial hand gel at the end of my bed. One male nurse took out a cannula after I pointed out the blood that was seeping out around it, then he actually put his finger on the "dressing" part of the plaster and then put it directly on where the needle had just come out. I had to ask for anetiseptic wipes to wipe away the blood that was all down my arm as he was just going to leave me like that. There were only 2 good nurses out of the many I saw and no they were not understaffed as many were at the nursing station. Do I think it has changed since then? No, not a chance as it was so appauling, as the changes they need to make are so basic. What traumatised me most was that I could talk and slowly shuffle along to the nurses station to get help if desparate but there were elderly patients there that were not so fortunate. They need to put some strict procedures in place to overcome this needless disorder.
"Unhygienic"
About: Southampton General Hospital Southampton General Hospital Southampton SO16 6YD
Posted via nhs.uk
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