"Nurses make this hospital, mixed opinions of..."

Anything else?

Admitted with severe UTI summer 2012, sent for many tests whilst in A&E, staff there were fantastic. Then to CDU, and ended up in Urology. I seemed to be a baffling case which I appreciate may be difficult and frustrating for a consultant but when I was seen the next morning the consultant tried to discharge me, despite still being on and needing an incredible dosage of morphine, the pain had not improved at all. The junior doctor (?) accompanying the consultant drew his attention to my notes which hadn't even been looked at, before they decided to keep me in for longer and send me off for more scans. I was moved to Gynae ward a few days later. The hierarchy of hospital staff seems to negatively correlate with care and understanding; the nurses were absolutely wonderful, and did all they could to help me whilst the consultant seemed to be of the opinion that as all tests had come back negative, despite my acute pain, I was no longer his problem. The hospital policy on visiting times also proved to be a problem here. I am a young patient and was in so much pain that I did not feel remotely capable of arguing with the consultant and was on pain medication that made me practically incoherent, so I wanted a parent to be with me to talk to the doctor on my behalf. Initially, the sister at urology was quite aggressive, and it took much persuading for her to agree. My father then left as soon as the doctors did, and so was not disrupting any of the running of the hospital. Luckily, I saw the consultant for only 5 minutes every morning. Upon discharge, treatment as an outpatient has been fantastic, and I have found meetings with consultants excellent. I have recently been in for day surgery, and can again say that the nurses are absolutely superb and work so hard. The surgery team were very friendly pre-op, and mostly after as well, although it felt like they considered their 'job to be done'. I was given the results of my operation and told I would be referred to a different department for further outpatient treatment, which to me seemed a little odd, as my symptoms have not really been explained. The surgeon told me I could go home then, but nurses said that I should not feel pressured to leave if I wasn't comfortable. After surgery, I stayed one night due to pain, again, nurses were marvellous and managed to telephone a doctor to request a higher pain killer dosage as the one I was given did not even come close to any sort of relief. This too did not really help either and the next day I waited all day before the Dr told me rather patronisingly to expect pain as I had just had surgery. Funnily enough, I was quite aware of this. I was simply hoping for some stronger medication, but was not too disappointed/ surprised when this didn't happen. This review may seem largely negative (and very long), but the actual care delivered by the nurses which made up most of my stay was faultless, just a shame the consultants aren't as encouraging and enthusiastic.