"ED staff and ward nurses were excellent, I am not..."

What I liked

I was rushed into A&E with a infection and a high temperature. I wanted to go home to same day but the A&E doc stood her ground and wouldn't let me have my way in which I am really thankful as my temperature continuous to increase during my wait to go up to the ward, despite the meds they were giving me at the ED.

Once I was on the ward, a very friendly nurse came to introduce herself, told me what was going to happen etc. It was late at night, and there was a busy night for them, but I wasn't left waiting for any length of time for anything. I never had to remind them of anything I have asked for, except for one when I asked for something when they were changing shifts, so I kind of expected to have to ask again. Not a big deal...

I was there for 2 nights, all the nursing staff were very friendly and made sure I was as comfortable as I could be. I never had to buzz, but the patients around me did and the nurses always came very quickly.

I had not stayed in a hospital at all before, and my stay was surprisingly pleasure and in a weird of way, I kind of enjoyed it. Not that I want to go stay in hospital again but it was a nice experience under the circumstances.

What could be improved

Maybe because I was admitted as an emergency patient, so I didn't have a named doctor, I must have had about 7 or 8 different doctors seeing me, each told me slightly different things, and they never spent more than 30 seconds with me. apart from the night when I was admitted, the doc seemed to have a little more time, so we chatted for 2 minutes. So while the nursing staff were all lovely and made me feel good, the doctors kind of made me feel a bit left out. I feel that a lot of responsibilities were left with the nurses including answering a lot of my questions which should have been answered by a doctors (I don't mean in a way that the nurses shouldn't be doing this, but it's more the doctors' job and they are never there.)

Overall, I feel that my whole care was by the nursing staff and the doctors were just there to sign the paper and nothing else. That said, they did do the surgery, but I think it's just a small part of the whole picture, however crucial it is.

Anything else?

Communication between departments could have been better; the A&E doctor wanted to admit me due to my high temp, but the surgeons didn't because they couldn't find a bed for me. I was left sat on a chair with a drip for about 5 hours with nobody telling me what is really going on. The doctor and nurses in the ED knew I had to be admitted, and had one of the surgeons been bothered to come down to see me, they wouldn't have agreed and I might have been able to have my surgery done the same evening. As as soon as they finally saw me, they were pushing for the surgery to happen asap.

Were they busy or lazy? I don't know.