"My friend's care in A&E at Bradford"

I took my friend, who I was caring for, into the A&E for the second time in three days. This last one she had only been home 3 hours, before I had to ring to have her taken back.

We were seen to by a doctor who was to take the patient's particulars, like blood. Seeing his attempt to take her pulse with his thumb, we wondered if he was competent or had the confidence to take her blood. He tried 3-4 times to take blood from the wrist, then looked at another place which did not work. Then I requested for him to get another doctor, who took the blood straight away.

We were not told of any results, which was found at that time after many hours in this area. She was found a bed at 2.30am on a ward, after being admitted into A.E. about 10.00pm. On the ward, I was asked to leave the bedside, while my friend was giving her details to a staff member. During this time I intervened, as the nurse was going through the bags that I had left on the bed to come back to, as I had been carrying them around for about 5 hours, which contained things that were not only the patient’s but also mine, and she did not ask anybody if she could look.

My friend was discharged the day afterwards, with not having any explanation or follow up treatment. My friend died a week later.

Yes, more communication would have been better. She was a wheelchair user, and we were told that she could not take her wheelchair in, on which she was dependent to get around, as she had to be dependent on the nurses to toilet her, this she could do herself.

She and I found it very stressful and an awful experience. However, the ambulance service was very good.