"Appalling Lack of Patient Care"

I remember a time when the NHS used to serve patients and the people who worked in the NHS genuinely cared about the patient. Now the staff in the NHS place themselves first and do not like being disrupted by patients. Unfortunately, for me, I have experienced this lack of patient care in the Emergency Department of Fairfield General Hospital in the early hours of 25th November 2016. I arrived in the department by ambulance. Then the ambulance crew and I had to wait for me to be triaged. Eventually a nurse arrived to do the triage. The nurse explained they had been delayed but did not apologise for the delay. The nurse had been working out staff rosters, which clearly must be more important than a patient’s clinical needs. There was a further hiatus prior to triage whilst the nurse commiserated with them-self about their paperwork burden. Finally I was triaged although this consisted of a discussion between the ambulance technician and the nurse audio visually distinct from me. I had no role in being triaged. I was then transferred to a cubicle. The reason for my admission was excruciating pain. It was so bad I could not bear it. I was actually biting the bars on the sides of the trolley on which I was lay to try to cope. My partner repeatedly asked if I could receive pain relief. These requests were completely ignored. The nursing staff were very brave in ignoring my pain whilst they sat around the nurses’ station moaning in voices loud enough for us patients to hear how sorrow was their lot. Eventually after many requests by my partner a nurse informed him that I was to be provided with pain relief. When he requested that it be administered he was advised there would need to be a further delay because the nurse to whom I had been assigned was now on a break. That was on a break only 90 minutes after starting work. After informing him of this delay they were able to resume their gossiping around the nurses’ station. As soon as I was given an IV injection of morphine my pain soon went. It is a shame it could not have been managed sooner. Ten minutes after receiving the injection I was told I was being discharged but would have to remain in the department for one hour after receiving a morphine injection. This clearly upset the under occupied nurses at the nurses’ station because it mean I would have been in the department for longer than four hours. The irony is that if they had done what they are paid to do instead of anything but I would have been relieved of my pain sooner and their four hour target would not have been breached. Next time I need a hospital I fervently hope I will not have to go to this dreadful hospital.