"Hospital is never an enjoyable ..."

What I liked

Hospital is never an enjoyable experience but there was one nursing shift out of three that I would class as exceptional. The emergency response service was excellent and I found casualty to be excellent.

What could be improved

A lot could be improved. I was told next to nothing as to the serverity of my crushed shoulder, I asked to have copies of the x-rays e-mailed to me and was told I couldn't as they were hospital property (I have copies when I went private and I shall use the data protection act to get the rest). I spent a day (22nd July) sitting in a ward doing nothing. I was not told a thing, I had expected an operation that day or even a CT scan but nothing happened and nobody really spoke to me. That same day the afternoon nursing shift failed to check my temperature and blood pressure. My pain levels were getting worse. Evening came and I was unable to move from my chair and my arm had lost sensation. I attracted the attention of a night shift nurse who said "yeah, yeah" and gestured with his hand as in "talk to the hand as the face isn't listening". After yelling I need help, they took my BP etc and realised it had gone through the roof. Had then monitered me that day they would have realised. I said I wanted to go private. After helping me into bed the nurses IGNORED me throughout the night. I was apparently asleep so the oncall doctor left me even though I can describe him and heard everything he said. I can recount most of what happened that night as I was awake. Nobody checked on me. Morning came and the good nurses were back. They found me weak, pale with a high pulse and BP. The food was awful. Rubberised blue fish fingers and whatever choice you made it didn't arrive and was always re-heated. I refused to eat another thing on the 23rd July and demanded they get me out into a private ward. My healthcare insurance probably has a recording of me pleading for them to rescue me as they were killing me. I was not taken seriously. After a lot ofprotests I got the CT scan they failed to give me the day before and was discharged without knowng how badly I was injured. Forgive any typos, I only have one hand working.

Anything else?

The plaster cast on my arm was probably doing more harm than good, my shoulder joint was pointing one way and my broken shaft the other. The weight of the cast was injuring my kneck. I only learnt of the details of my condition when my private doctore rang me up and rushed me into a private hospital for a big operation.

This hospital could improve thinbgs very cheaply. Treat patients with dignity and tell patients of their condition and what options they have.

I will alwasy go private in future.