"Every visit to the hospital for me has to end in some kind of disappointment"

I recently experienced a small bleeding, I’m 33 weeks into my second pregnancy, so I decided to call the Maternity Assessment Unit of the Princess Royal in Glasgow around 3 pm.

I was at the hospital at around 4:20 (more or less), I was asked to go in and take off my clothes and wait until a midwife could check on me. I waited for an hour before somebody came to see me. I was explaining my situation to the midwife when a doctor very abruptly came in with another doctor. The doctor interrupted my conversation with the midwife and took control of the situation. I’m not sure how positive that was, but I guess most people must wait longer to see a consultant sometimes.

The doctor said I needed to have an internal revision to see where the blood was coming from and I agreed to that. They also said it would be good to take a swab in case it was an infection. The revision was a bit painful and their conclusion was that the bleeding was caused by a thrush infection.

The doctor prescribed clotrimazole and took a swab for analysis. Then the midwife took my blood pressure and connected me to the monitor, by then I think it was already 6:00 pm. I was hungry and my blood pressure was low, I told the nurse I wasn’t feeling great and that I needed to eat something. They said I needed to be on the monitor for 20 mins, which I thought was acceptable. Those 20 mins turned into an hour, the monitor had an alarm, and someone came to disconnect the alarm but didn’t say anything to me.

Around 7:00 pm someone else came to see me and was surprised that I was still there. I was very upset, and this person started to excuse the situation by saying that there was an emergency and that apparently I had been moving because the results of the monitor weren’t entirely clear. I didn’t move because I understand how important it was to check on the baby. I complained about being left there for an hour, about being hungry, and about how every visit to the hospital for me has to end in some kind of disappointment. They said they could not offer one-to-one service or food (I wasn’t asking for either of those) and that on my next visit I should be prepared to wait for 7 to 8 hours. Really?

They didn’t appear to like that I was complaining about the situation and got a bit serious, then they changed they attitude and I could see they really meant the apology. One of the problems was I was left there with no means of communication, no buzzer, and no phone (I didn't have a charger with me).

I visited my community midwife, we talked about the situation and I asked about the test results. There was nothing in the system. How is it possible for these things to happen, does this mean my swab was left around and then thrown away? My midwife had to do the test again and I’m still bleeding, probably due to an infection (the treatment prescribed, didn’t help).

My case might not be an emergency, but I don’t think it is acceptable to forget someone connected to a monitor or to lose a test. I’m sad, disappointed, and scared about how it is going to be when I give birth. My last experience at the hospital when I gave birth wasn’t good either. On that occasion, I had a chat with a doctor, and I would love to feel like I can trust the people and the system.