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Overnight care

Posted By windym

"Overnight care"

About: Good Hope Hospital / Accident & emergency

(as the patient),

After food poisoning which resulted in gastro enteritis I had little/no sleep and no appetite for 24hrs. I presented myself to A&E.

I was immediately placed on fluid rehydration and spent the night in isolation. with no food available before dawn and no sleep. When I was approached by a doctor I was asked some ridiculous questions: "do you know what the time is? do you know where you are? and can I count from 20 to 1. The time spent on this pointless exercise could have been better occupied by asking the patient if he/she has any family support and, if not, (as in my case) would an extended stay cause any additional hardship? eg. personal hygiene, shaving, toothbrush, change of inevitable soiled underwear/ clothes, ect.

My phone battery was flat and I had no contact in or out. My request to see a doctor fell on deaf ears and after waiting over 6hrs I made a self discharge. The irony here was I was actually back to normal without any additional medication a short while later.

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Responses

Response from Richard Parker, Managing Director, Good Hope Hospital, Heart Of England NHS Foundation Trust 9 years ago
Richard Parker
Managing Director, Good Hope Hospital,
Heart Of England NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 25/11/2014 at 12:24
Published on Care Opinion at 14:13

picture of Richard Parker

Dear Sir / Madam

I'm sorry to read about your experience in our Emergency Department. If you're willing to make yourself known to me I'm happy to look into the treatment your recieved with our team to see where improvements could be made. My email address is richard.parker@heartofengland.nhs.uk

I'm glad you made a speedy recovery without further medical intervention. For future reference, local pharmacy services (&/or 111) can be a good source of advice and treatment before having to consider a visit to the Accident and Emergency Department with conditions such as food poisoning or gastroenteritis; by their nature, and despite best efforts, Emergency Departments can be both noisy and uncomfortable places at times.

Best wishes

Richard

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by windym (the patient)

In response to the reply from Richard parker M. D C/o Good hope Hospital.

I would like to point out that apart from a cardiac chest pain 'event' 12 years ago I have never had surgery or any major illness in my entire life, and generally maintain a healthy lifestyle. Mr parkers suggestion that I contact my local pharmacy before the A&E was not appreciated, at least NOT in this case. In my belief the body should always be persuaded to develop its own defence and ultimately encourage immunity to common ailments.

However, after my recent misfortune to contract a gastric diseise/virus due to infected meat, I can assure you that over the following 48 hrs+ I made all reasonable attempts to cure the problem at home. with fresh water, paracetamol, and magnesia ect, unfortunately to no avail. forced with the inevitable losing battle with low blood sugar, Substantial loss of fluids, appetite, energy and sleep, Only THEN did I approach A&E for rehydration/ blood and urine tests. The staff here were Extremely helpful/ knowledgeable and highly co-ordinated.

A real credit.

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