"Overcrowded ward"

I was recently admitted to ward B12 after emergency surgery for an abscess, I was placed in a 4 bed bay as the 5th bed. 

This was extremely stressful as I had no privacy at all. Due to the location of my surgery the dressings needed packing and changing regularly (every time I went to the toilet), but being a 5th bed meant I had no curtains to pull round the bed for the nurses to do this. They tried putting up screens but this made the area too cramped and it still left half of me exposed to everyone else in the room. We ended up having to go to the bathroom and me bending over to change the dressings. What was already a mortifying experience became even more degrading. 

I honestly wouldn't have minded had my surgery been on any other part of my body, but it being in such an intimate area I felt extremely vul*erable and just exposed to everyone. In addition to this, the great visiting hours meant the bed next to me (which felt horribly close) had her teenage sons visiting, and again, because I wasn't able to pull any screens around me they had to see me get out of bed and leave bloody soaked pads on my bed after a surgical procedure, again, I felt so embarrassed and degraded.

I do understand the hospital was extremely busy, but the nature and intimacy of my surgery really warranted the need for privacy at certain times which I was stripped of, it was humiliating.

The staff were kind, and did what they could in the circumstances, but I came away feeling embarrassed and humiliated.