"Long wait in A&E"

Moved to the main hospital from a commercial hospital by ambulance. I’m immunosuppressed and unable to walk. On arrival I was briefly seen by a nurse who bemoaned how bad my veins were although I needed blood tests. I was vomiting and having rigours. Left to manage best I could despite very long standing spinal problems. Suffering from an already known abscess in my abdomen the consultant had given A&E a handover about me.

I was moved swiftly from the arrival assessment to a corridor wait of 10 hours in a tiny airless cubicle.  Cold and in pain. I had arrived with my medication and notes physically and on the computer system. The regular strong pain relief I have taken for 11 years, was not give during my 24 hour stay despite it being given last time I was in A&E, in the Trauma ward and in the community hospital- all this one admission.  The nurse said it couldn’t be given until I was on the ward. I was eventually cannulated ( easily) by a junior Doctor. Some hours later the nurse moved me to an assessment area at about 2:00 am. This was a cubical. Still cold. Still same trolley wait.  

During my 24 hour trolley wait my pressure areas on my heels deteriorated greatly from no blemish to marked changes and a sore on my elbow. Areas not properly checked. I received no hygiene care. Only small amounts of water to drink. Not able to eat because of nausea. I asked for help with that none ever came.

On arrival back to the community hospital I was dehydrated. My B/P low and there was a  smell from the discharging abscess having not been even offered a wet wipe wash.   I may be unable to walk and am in my sixties but still have all my mental capacity- I felt was treated in a grumpy way and with bad grace by nursing staff. 

My back was irrevocably injured during 48 year career in Nursing. The staff had no interest in me nor my background.  I despair that nursing care has slipped so low. I get doctors may be tired, but there is no need to be rude and dismissive and disrespectful to me. My husband calling from home all night eventually spoke to someone who knew where I was at about 9:00 am ( I’d arrived at 4:00pm).

The ambulance staff who bought me back to the community hospital were kind and caring. I came back not because I was better but because after 24 hour trolley wait there was no bed to be found for me to show my blood tests had gone back to normal and I was responding to correct IV antibiotics.

A medical consultant saw me briefly around 9:00 am and an advanced practitioner had tried to find out what antibiotics I needed but other than to tell me I needed a couple of days on the ward the consultant never came back with any reassurance.