"Unacceptable"

I was admitted to A & E on 22/12/13 due to severe pain in my neck, left shoulder and left arm. The ambulance staff were excellent and the A & E department too. I was given a cocktail of drugs and morphine to try and ease the pain but then I was transferred to the assessment ward. This is when it went down hill. Admitted on to this ward at 1am and around 3am I pressed the nurse call button which took them 5 minutes to respond to. I asked about getting more pain relief as I was in some significant pain. The response was "sorry we can not issue anything until the doctor has seen you". This is not very comforting when your in agonising pain! Then at around 6am I called for the nurse again as still in pain. Yet to be told again "sorry we can not do anything until the doctor has seen you". By this time I was in tears. Eventually the doctor came to see me at 11am! 10 hours left in a side room in absolute agony is not acceptable. I was then finally given some decent pain relief which just dulled the pain. From there I was transferred to ward A2 the following morning at 2am. The care from the nursing staff on this ward were excellent but the doctors were not! I was kept in for 8 days and it wasn't until the 5th day they sent me for an MRI scan. This showed I had a herniated disk in my neck. Finally they found out what was causing the pain. Hallelujah. They finally discharged me and was referred to neurology as an outpatient and also for Physio. They were so desperate for the side room I was in they asked if I could go sit in the TV room until all the paperwork had been completed, bearing in mind I could not sit up for more than 5 minutes. It took them a further 2 hours to complete the discharge. The first available emergent appointment for Physio wasn't for another 12 days! The Physio guy was fantastic and explained in detail exactly why I was in so much pain. He also new I had been referred to the neurologist. Two weeks had passed since been discharged and still no sign of an appointment with neurology. My partner finally got the bottom of it after 3 days of phone calls to discover that the referral had never been passed on due to doctor error on ward A2. I now have been told this would be dealt with with a matter of urgency but have lost all confidence in this hospital. I am now looking to go private as can not put up with this pain any longer.