"Mixed sex ward and lack of privacy"

I have been a patient twice before in the Ninewells AMU ward and they were both thoroughly unpleasant experiences, made much worse by the mixed sex aspect of the ward and a series of errors on the part of both nursing and medical staff.

On the third occasion, in January 2023, I reluctantly allowed myself to be taken to the AMU again by ambulance. Not much has changed, except the toilet/showers do now have signs specifying Gents or Ladies. Previously men were regularly using what staff had told me were the ladies’ toilets.  One thing that was worse was the constantly ringing unanswered telephone that was on the edge of the bay, adding to the general stress of the ward.

I find it extraordinary that the government and Tayside Health Board think it is acceptable to have mixed sex wards and bays in some cases, including AMU, Ninewells. For the Health Board to stress the importance of privacy and dignity is deeply cynical, while using mixed bays as standard procedure and, particularly, when the beds are in such close proximity to each other that it is impossible to avoid hearing all the private details of other patients' symptoms and circumstances when discussed with doctors or nurses who don't seem to feel it necessary to even lower their voices.

On this occasion, the patient in the next bed wasn't even given the decency of a curtain pulled round the bed although clearly embarrassed when called upon to discuss his symptoms with staff and even more so when he started to vomit.

The elderly man across the way from me was fortunate enough to have the curtain drawn around him before the doctor loudly explained to him that he was going to give him a physical rectal examination and proceeded to explain in great detail how exactly that was going to be done. Unbelievably, this examination was then carried out right there with all the other patients cringing at the shouts of pain from the poor man. This seems to be very much lacking in terms of respecting privacy or dignity and I personally, found the situation deeply upsetting.

On a separate issue, I pointed out to the nurse that I had brought my own prescribed medicines but I hadn’t been given any of them all day. She said that I would have to do without them because the doctor hadn’t written them up. I asked for them back but was refused.

When I was discharged, on Friday evening, my medicines still hadn't been returned to me. I would have had to go all weekend without any of them if it hadn't been for my wonderful pharmacist helping me out with emergency prescriptions.

I did get my medicines delivered to me by Ninewells on the following Monday, with a note attached, saying “left in ward”. Strange, I thought it would be the staff’s responsibility to give them back to me on discharge.

The combined effect of my having suffered being a patient at AMU, Ninewells on three occasions is that I will not go back there, no matter what the circumstances.