"Treatment while accessing early pregnancy support"

Firstly I would like to thank the midwives at arbroath maternity unit for the support and advice I’ve been given since finding out I was pregnant. 

Unfortunately I can’t say the same for the rest of healthcare professionals I met while in hospital. I developed a pain that was in my lower abdomen that wasn’t subsiding with pain relief so I contacted the early pregnacy unit at ninewells and was told someone would call me shortly as the midwife’s were busy. I was called back by a midwife several hours later and was told I would need to come to ninewells for assessment and potentially a scan. 

I arrived at the gynaecology assessment unit in Ninewells and was taken into a clinic area by a student nurse to have my observations taken and I was asked to do a urine sample and go back to the waiting room where I was told a doctor would come and see me soon.

The student nurse returned about an hour and a half later and asked for my phone number as they didn’t have one on file. While I was giving my phone number I noticed my urinalysis was stapled to the piece of paper and wrote on the paper was “HVG -ve.” At that moment my world crumbled at my feet!

My husband  had left the gynaecology assessment unit to go get some juice as we weren’t offered anything even water while we were in a waiting room for 2 and a half hours. I broke down to one of the nurses as I didn’t know what was happening and how long it would be before I was seen as there was 2 ladies that were before me still waiting to be seen and nobody had communicated anything with me! The nurse explained that the doctor that was trained in doing the scans had been in multiple emergencies today and apologised for the wait, which I totally understand and if this had been communicated from the start it would have made the experience slightly more bearable. I explained I had seen my urinalysis and couldn’t believe it hadn’t been communicated with me that my test was negative and the nurse couldn’t have apologised more. The communication was probably the worst it could have got!

I was told to go and get a drink and to report to ward 36  as the gynaecology assessment unit closes at 18:30 and it was unlikely a doctor would be back before then. We arrived at ward 36 and was told by the nurse that we would have to sit in the corridor until they moved the ward around to find us a bed, they assured us it would be done as quickly as they could. They also stated if we needed anything to just ask. I was still in a lot of pain and hadn’t had any pain relief since I left for the hospital so my husband asked the nurse on my behalf for some paracetamol.  They said there was no doctor around at the moment to prescribe it but they would do it as soon as she could.

My pain was getting worse as I was sitting on a plastic chair in a corridor for 2 hours I now know losing my baby. I have never felt so undignified in all my life and it’s hands down the worst experience I have ever been through. 

My husband approached a healthcare support worker and asked where the toilets were and they said  you’ll have to go to level 7 in a snappy manner.   My husband was asking for me not himself and after I stated it was for me they reluctantly showed me where the bathroom was. I wasn’t really needing the bathroom just somewhere private so I could cry.

I made my way back to my chair barely able to walk I was in so much pain and my husband asked again for me as I didn’t want to be a nuisance as I could see they were busy and eventually after being in hospital for 5 hours I was eventually given 2 paracetamol which didn’t really help my pain at all. 

We were finally given a bed in the ward and the nurse couldn’t have been more apologetic.  I don’t blame them,  it wasn’t their fault it was the management of the triage service and the out of hours pathway. There should be a designated area for triage patients because we were just left in the corridor and forgotten about.  I believe the nurse was given false information by the gyne assessment unit as they  were  under the impression that I had been assessment by a junior doctor prior to arriving on the ward which wasn’t the case as I had only been seen by a student nurse.

I was finally seen by a doctor later that evening  and I can’t fault the care I was given by both registrars.  They treated me with the upmost respect and dignity and they are a credit to the nhs. Unfortunately after 6 hours in hospital I was finally scanned and told that I had spent all those hours sitting in waiting rooms and corridors losing my pregnancy and I’m only sharing this story as I don’t want others to go through this as I’ve never had a more undignified experience in all my life. 

Unfortunately this is probably the worst experience I have ever had while in hospital and I hope that this can help change the way the service is run and secure beds in ward 36 or another area for triage patients out of hours because i don’t want anyone to ever go through what I went through and no one ever should!