NHS need more nurses!
I went to hospital around 6pm on a Monday evening for urgent treatment. To be fair, I was only waiting what seemed an hour to be seen unfortunately I was told I’d have to stay overnight. There was a fairly short wait to then be taken to the assessment unit. However, when I did arrive no beds were available so was given a chair. Two men and a young lady with back problems were also sat in chairs.
I was feeling really hot and needed to lay down so after an hour or so, I asked the nurse If I was able to have a bed, especially as I could see an empty assessment bed opposite me. The nurse seemed a little put out and said she was busy but would check later. My complaining paid off because an hour later the same nurse took me to an empty assessment bed but explained if they needed to examine a patient, then I would have to be moved back to a chair. At that point I’d settle for anything because I was desperate to lay down.
I used the toilet on the ward but the lock didn’t work. There were men in beds that were facing the toilet door and staff too. Surely this is the one place patients need complete privacy!
It was midnight and I was using my jacket as a blanket, I counted my blessings though, as I had a bed. The two men and young lady were still sat in chairs. Just after midnight I was given a sheet and a blanket for a pillow. I asked for another blanket if they had one spare. One of the men sat in chairs was given a towel for a blanket and the other had nothing at all, so I gave him my blanket. At 12.30am they managed to find a spare blanket for me so I could finally take my flip flops off and cover my feet.
There was so much activity and noise on the assessment unit, I assumed it was about 7am, so I got up and found another toilet that actually locked in the waiting room. 3 people had been sat in chairs overnight, still waiting to be examined. I spoke to the young lady on the assessment unit who arrived before me. I was shocked when she said she’d been in a chair for 2 days and still didn’t have a bed. I felt bad that I’d been moaning for a bed and blankets. She had a metal plate in her back too. The other spare assessment bed had been empty all night so surely they could’ve given her that. I got back into bed only to realise it was 4am.
The next day was worse! I had more treatment as the first lot didn’t work. I was informed I’d have a chest X-ray and continue with antibiotics and be assessed by doctors later that day. If things didn’t improve then i’d need a CT Scan to find the route of the problem. I had the x-ray and carried on with antibiotics but the Doctors didn’t come to assess me later that day. I couldn’t inform my family whether to collect me or not as I didn’t know what was going on. In the end I resigned myself to the fact that I’d be in another night.
The fun then started with an abusive drug addict turning up on the ward with her companion. She seemed to go gradually downhill and later pointed straight at me and said ‘her’. Stupidly, I was trying to work but my laptop then made me a target for thieves. At one point she told the nurses to leave the ward because something bad had happened outside. Luckily they took no notice but I have to say she scared me because she was right next to bed when trying to plot something.
I alerted the nurse in charge who swapped my assessment bed for a hospital bed. She pulled up the side bars on the bed and told me to cover my belongings under the blanket and she wedged the side table over the bed so it would be hard for them to grab my things.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t the only trouble on the ward. Another young girl was admitted with a dodgy boyfriend. My iphone was on charge on the chair next to my bed and he kept looking at it every time he passed my bed. He seemed to be walking back and forth every 5 mins which was totally unnecessary if he was visiting his sick partner.
The drug addict then started abusing the staff
F** I need help
F** I need a doctor
I’m not F** speaking to you, I want a Doctor NOW!
This went on for quite some time.
Later again she started another trail of abuse because the staff warned her she may miss the consultant if she popped outside for yet another cigarette. The amount of bad language that came out of her mouth was absolutely appalling. She was surrounded by sick elderly people and had no respect for anyone. She actually got her own way and went outside for another cigarette too. She should’ve been taken off the ward but the staff have a ‘Duty of Care’ so had to put up with it.
I felt really vulnerable with the drug addict and dodgy visitor so I pulled the curtains right around my bed to stop them peering over at my belongings and me.
There was an unprecedented amount of people being admitted onto this assessment unit on Tuesday evening. I could hear older people being examined that had no bed. They were all sitting in chairs. It really was a sorry state of affairs.
It’s now 12.41am and I’m next to an assessment bed so all the patients are being examined in the bed next to mine. I’d say every 30 mins or so. It’s like being in a day surgery. An older lady is using the bed for overnight stay but is being taken off it frequently for others to be assessed. I can hear all the questioning which is wrong. One lady has dementia and breast cancer. One lady has head pain and blurred vision. One lady has bowel and tummy problems. I heard it all.
Then early hours in the morning doctors then discuss a patient. What are we going to do with her?
One replies ‘I don’t know she’s Dr ??? patient’
Well we could do this
Or we could do that
Or there’s surgery but that will cost so we’ll see what Dr ??? says and they gave a little chuckle.
So it seems some patients may not always get the best treatment because of cost.
I had no sleep the whole night. This was definitely not, the place to recuperate.
In the morning some young doctor walks onto the ward and says ‘look what s**t we’ve been left with’. Some of these young doctors need to be a little more professional if you ask me. Patients have ears.
There were so many elderly people left in chairs that night, it really was horrific seeing the NHS in this state.
In the morning the consultant came to examine me. He rubbed my throat and said ‘glands seemed fine’ (I would like to point out they weren’t), ‘we can give you a CT Scan of your ears, nose and throat but there’s no infection’. That got me thinking, well if no infection why bother having a CT Scan. I did suggest my CT scan should be over a wider area as I had concerns but he refused and said I’d need to go back to my GP and ask them to book a CT Scan. I don’t know how these CT Scans work but it seems logical to me to get the CT Scan whilst in hospital rather than go through the whole booking process again wasting more NHS money and time. It seemed to me the doctor I personally saw was only interested in curing the one illness and didn’t seem at all interested in my concern which may have been the reason I ended up sick in the first place. I went home unwell and seemed to get worse as the days went on.
The dodgy visitor was going off on his trails somewhere so exchanged mobile numbers with his girlfriend. Funny how a couple needed to exchange mobile numbers. My only guess was is that he pinched it whilst in hospital.
This experience has opened my eyes to how many problems there are facing the NHS. Abusive patients should be separated because sick people can’t recuperate and are left vulnerable with belongings. A Sister should have been leading the unit to co-ordinate everything. A visitor was left for hours not knowing if a Doctor was coming to see her sick Mother. The floors hadn’t been cleaned with a machine, surely this would prevent germs, the staff couldn’t find blankets. No-one was given water jugs. There seemed to be lack of apparatus because they were being shared and moved, so when a nurse needed to do blood pressure for example the machine was missing.
They’re clearly lacking in funding and need:
More beds,
More blankets
Water jugs for patients (sick patients get dehydrated).
Cleaners
More security
Lastly and most importantly, we need more Nurses because they’re having to take on too much work. Some were so stressed and it’s not surprising because there weren’t enough of them to manage the amount of the patients that kept coming through. If Management can’t recruit enough nurses and look after the ones they already have, they’ll end up becoming the patient. I have so much respect for them. Thank you so much for all the hard work that you do.
