"I was admitted via my GP in an emergency..."

What I liked

I was admitted via my GP in an emergency ambulance firstly to A/E with chest pain, the responder and ambulance crew were efficient and caring. A?E staff were caring and attentive and transfer to ward 18 was arranged quickly and efficiently.

Ward 18 nursing and support staff were attentive, caring and knowledgeable during my 2 night stay.

What could be improved

I heard a man ask when his take home medication would be arriving as he had waited five hours since being told it had been ordered, at the time that wasn't my problem but found out soon enough that its a normal situation. I was told that i could go home and myself waited for more then four hours in the waiting area, which was full of howling children and grumpy adults, for take home medication. OK everyone is busy these days, me included but surely take home medication could be requested and dispensed in a more timely fashion. The last thing people who are ill, but well enough to be discharged to their home, need is to wait for hours and hours to be able to be released back to their family who have dutifully visited and arranged to be available (taking time off work) to pick one up following discharge. This all adds to an already stressful situation which needs to be remedied.

In addition to this I was released without my discharge letter which i thought had been put in the bag with my take home meds and had to arrange to come back the following week to pick it up. Strangely enough the day after i had returned to the hospital for the letter I had an urgent request to contact my GP to discuss the contents of my discharge letter, spooky eh? perhaps she hadn't been sent a copy until i requested mine either.

I was involved with decisions about my care… mostly but spent hours on end wondering when tests and investigations that the doctor had discussed with me would be implemented, when i asked about them it turned out he hadn't done the request or documented that he wanted them, The nurse said he must have changed his mind but it would have been nice to have been told.

Toilet areas in the ward could have been much cleaner.

Anything else?

Overall a good care experience let down by systems which are outside of the ward staffs control.

The take home medicines situation in the NHS is scandalous and needs change. If there's a shortage of staff to do the work this should be addressed or a different system adopted such as the option to get ones take home medications from the local chemist.

Doctors need to be more efficient in documenting their requests and intentions following ward rounds.

Having spoken to people who have had recent hospital admissions I now know that the TTO medicine problem is wider spread than just Barnsley.... Come on NHS sort it out before someone decides to outsource the service to the private sector ....then what?

No one does their job in the NHS for altruistic reasons, they get paid and on the whole paid well by you and me, people who don't give value for money should be made to change their ways.