"Poor care during my stay "

Was admitted through A + E in early January 2013, in the few minutes I waited there I was horrified to see patients in the cubicles, without any screens around them giving them no privacy or dignity.

I was soon told to go to ward 47 the medical assessment unit. I was being admitted with a severe chest infection and a low blood count which meant I had nothing to fight the infection with.

On the ward no one told me where the washroom was. I was eventually seen by a young doctor who told me I needed intravenous antibiotics and would have to stay in. I was admitted about 4: 30pm but my drip and antibiotics were not started till 12 midnight.

The lights were left on all night and a nurse tapped away most of the night on the computer in very close proximity to my bed so there was no hope of any sleep!

My next antibiotics were due at 6am but not started till 7: 30.

Thankfully I am a nurse and was able to look after my own drip, as the staff kept telling me it would be ok to leave it although it was running through and air would have gone into my veins if I had not turned it off.

My next antibiotics were due at 12 noon and the nurse in charge said they would get them, but I had to go looking for this nurse to remind them as it was now 2: 30pm! I felt the nurse's response was quite flippant.

The washroom was a small wet-room, but it was impossible to get a shower as the rubbish bin was over the waste pipe, even if I had been able to lift it, I did not want to touch it due to being immunosuppressed, but there was nowhere to move it to anyway. The plug hole of the sink was blocked with tissues so the sink was uninviting for washing or cleaning teeth.

There was a fire door opposite my bed with a sign saying not to obstruct but there was a computer on a trolley, chairs and a case sheet trolley all obstructing it.

In the 24 hours I was in the ward no one washed their hands at the sink close to my bed and only 3 people used the hand gel which was at the end of every bed!

I had been told early in the morning that I would be moved to a side ward but that never happened instead at 2: 45pm I was told I could go home even though my blood levels had not improved.

I was told to go to the discharge lounge to wait for my medication, some of which I had brought in from home, was taken out of my locker and sent to pharmacy to be brought to the lounge nearly 2 hours later, with some of my own medication missing. Why could they not have just returned it to me on the ward? By this time I was too tired to wait any longer for them to go back to pharmacy to sort it out, so I went home.

I do hope the the patients I have looked after for the last 48years were never treated as I was. I am terrified of having to go in hospital again. I now have very little faith in the NHS.