"Lack of nursing staff"

I needed an operation on two broken arm bones. I stayed in hospital for three nights and had to wait for my operation due to other priority cases. This was no ones fault. The first ward I was in had caring and quite good staff of all capacities, although these were more auxiliary staff than nurses. There seemed to be a lack of nursing staff and people who pressed their button for help (even for a bed pan) had to wait for increasing lengths of time. The second ward I was moved to had very caring staff on the night duty (one of each male and female). However the days staff, mainly the main nurse, seemed to think I was invisible! I did not make a fuss about wanting attention but had to ask several other staff (of different capacities such as students and auxiliary etc) to ask if I could have my drip changed as it was empty. It took four hours for the nurse to finally come and then said she couldn’t change it now. No one came and then I finally went down to theatre. I challenged her and she said I should have pressed my button! I was trying to give her time and not be demanding! She got all my messages from the people I asked but still did not come! Plus I could hear her telling the other staff about me, surely merely asking for a drip (which she had told me earlier on in the day I needed) sis not warrant this! I was disgusted and so were other patients on my ward. After confronting her about why she then took me to theatre and wished me luck with my operation. Another thing not agreeable to quite a few patients was the state of the toilet on the ward. The staff took patients in a chair and then left them to pick them up later, but never checked the state of the toilet. It was disgusting in several places, toilet, seat, light pull etc. Finally, there was lots of hand gel but no one encouraging visitors to use it!!