"Hospital did not diagnose potentialy dangerous blood condition"

I have visited Casualty & A&E at Basildon Hospital on a few occasions, my most recent visits being in August/September 2008. At these visits, I had to wait along with everybody else for at least 4 hours before being seen. I found the waiting area is a frightening experience in itself, packed with people, security guards and police.

I remember on one occasion being led to a bed in A&E ward and on the floor and half up the wall there was a big puddle of vomit. Most of the doctors and nurses did not speak clearly or concisely. I doubt the elderly people would have understood a word they said.

On my 2/3 most recent visits in 2008, I was having a stroke with some classic symptoms ie. serious head pains, vision loss etc. however, this was not picked up by the doctor assessing me so I was sent home with painkillers and told to perhaps make an appointment to see a neurologist or an ophthalmologist. In my opinion I feel this is negligence. Even when this condition had caused me to have a stroke at 48 years old I still got no help or treatment and was sent away.

I have seen many consultants over the past 10 years for mystery pain problems and symptoms, neurology x 3, endocrinology, rheumatology, physiotherapy etc. at this hospital and they all failed to pick up a potentially dangerous blood condition I had. Any medical problems I have had including blood, have been picked up at London hospitals - absolutely none at Basildon.

Most of the consultants I have seen at Basildon seem uninterested in my appointments. Some of them I have seen more than once and have been there a long time.

I now do my best to avoid Basildon Hospital if at all possible. This means extra travel and inconvenience for me which is not the way I think it should be. I feel my treatment at this hospital has been going downhill over many years.

From my experience, I feel that this hospital is a failure in many areas not just cleanliness.

So where do we go now?