"Inpatient services"

Anything else?

I had the experience of being an emergency inpatient for ENT for 3 days- this was a good experience clinically but the ward itself was a plastics ward and appeared disorganised. Most attention was given to the plastics patients. . I was left to be self sufficient. The nurses just ignored me and walked past; the senior nurse looked at me twice and then tried not to make eye contact. The same senior nurse apologised to me upon my discharge, post operatively, that she had been too busy to deal with me for 2 of the days, but it appeared they were not really interested. At one point I bled so many times and coughed up clots and felt so terrible, I was really tearful. The nurses saw but just whipped past. My curtain kept being whipped open when I closed it for privacy as my bed was on the corner and in full view of all people who walked up and down the corridor to the men’s section of the ward. I was never once asked by the nursing staff if I minded, they just walked past and whipped it open. The male visitors were allowed to use the women’s toilets on the women’s bay, opposite my bed, where my curtains were open. I had to ask for my curtains to be replaced as the curtains and the side wall had old blood stains on them. This was replaced 2 days later.

The night team banged and crashed around and were very loud, calling patients loudly by their names at night. There was no discretion and you could hear everything, especially when the older ladies had to use the commode and had an accident- it was not very dignified as everyone heard. The lady next to me was really distressed and couldn’t speak English In the end they stopped coming to her. She was unresponsive the next day when they came to rouse her and they had to escalate and bring the medics and orthopods in- she had had a stroke in the night. . All in all, a very poor ward experience and this certainly makes me nervous. The ENT clinical team were excellent and their care was really appreciated and their professionalism exemplary.

However this doesn’t stop here. I have since been referred fro another condition at the hospital and did not know they had given me an appointment as no correspondence was received, I was therefore gobsmacked to find out I had DNA’ed something I didn’t know I had. The message said to contact them if I still wanted the appointment, which I do! I was left a number TO call between 1-4.45. I tried a few times but couldn’t get an answer. There was no facility to leave a message at all and I have no idea who the consultant is that I am seeing to try to contact his secretary. I have written to PALS to ask if they can help me establish contact so that I may find out the details of any future appointments and what happened for me to miss a crucial appointment and where did they send the letter to? I confess I do not feel very confident in the care I may receive given the circumstances and previous experiences. Things just feel very disjointed.