"Assessment ward"

Anything else?

Being admitted via A&E is always difficult - the discomfort and noise levels are both seriously bad. I can understand that staff need to keep their spirits up in a stressful situation but it felt sometimes like a party was going on. I was given medication by mouth and injection which was not entered on my notes [ Later, on the ward, I was almost given the same meds. Only my knowledge of what I'd been given stopped the nurse from repeating them. They said then that the notes were not filled in.] I was put onto the assessment ward with six elderly dementia patients all of whom needed special attention. The nursing staff were not equipped for this and tried shouting at the patients ie 'you've got to have a line for your dehydration!!' or becoming exasperated when one of them tried to get out of bed, eventually putting her in a chair where she was left for a number of hours appearing to sleep. In fact she'd had a stroke, as they later discovered.

Experiencing first hand how elderly dementia patients are treated scared the life out of me.