"Great care in A&E but not so great on the wards"

I went to A&E in July 2012 at 1pm with terrible pain in left side. I looked in the waiting room of a & e and knew I was going to have to wait ages to been seen.

I was being sick because I was in that much pain but with great surprise I was seen within less than 10 minutes by the nurse then she took me straight through onto a bed where I was given pain relief straight away.

I was admitted onto the ward around 6pm that night where I was told I was to have a CT scan which I thought was going to be the next morning but 15 minutes later the porter came to take me for CT scan.

At 9pm I was told I had to stay the night because I had kidney stones then was later moved to ward 22. The doctor came the next morning and told me they was operating the next day and had the consent forms ready for me to sign. The next day came and I kept asking the nurse what time I was going down for my operation and he just kept snapping at me, the porter came around 10:30 and I still had nail varnish on (I had told the nurse a number of times that I had nail varnish on and asked for some remover, which was never brought to me) when I told the nurse again he was moaning constantly about this.

The recovering staff after my operation was fantastic. I was in a lot of pain after and the nurse really took care of me and wouldn't let me go onto the ward until the pain had gone a little. When going back on to the ward the nurse was moaning at the nurse from recovery.

I was discharged on the Friday (still in a lot of pain and unable to keep water down) I asked the same nurse as from the day before if I should be going home he just wanted me out the bed. I went home and was told my tablets would be ready at 7:30pm that night. My partner rang up at 7:30 to see if they was ready and they told him they would be ready by 1pm the next day and by 6pm on the Saturday my tablets was ready. I was in a great deal of pain.

I was told I was to see the consultant in 3 weeks. 3 weeks had gone and no appointment had come through the post. I rang up and I was even on the system and somebody would ring me back. 2 weeks later and nobody had rung me back so I rang up and got the same answer I wasn't on the system. It took 3 months from getting discharged to getting an appointment.

The care that I received in a&e was fantastic, I cannot fault it. Same as in recovery, but I am disgusted with the care that I received on the ward, the amount of time it took to get my medication and how long I had to wait to see my consultant.

The whole time I was on the ward my room wasn't cleaned, yet the bedding was changed everyday.

I think there is a lot of changes to be made within your service.