"Long wait-times, rude staff, poor facilities."

I’ve visited the hospital 3 times over the last 12 months. The first two occasions, I was seen in UTC, and on one occasion I attended the A&E department. When attending the UTC, I waited for 9 hours, I was in significant pain and bleeding heavily due to (what I now know) was a ruptured ovarian cyst. During this time, I was offered no pain relief, despite being unable to move and crying in pain. I was given no reassurance or compassion from staff. I couldn’t even get a drink of water from the cooler as there were no cups available. I was seen after nine hours, and was told that there was nothing that could be done for me. When discussing my symptoms, I was told by a member of staff ‘I won’t be helping as I’m not trained to deal with vaginas’, this felt incredibly passive aggressive and insensitive. I left the department sobbing, having waited 9 hours in severe pain, to be given no answers or treatment. My partner was with me, and upon seeing me come out of the department so upset and still in pain, he waited around and asked to speak to the consultant that had seen me. He had to threaten a complaint, before we were taken seriously. I was then given two oral paracetamol tablets, and told to walk over to the maternity department for a scan. The consultant didn’t check to see if I’d had any paracetamol earlier on in the evening (I did), so the tablets were useless to me. I was made to walk down the road to the maternity department, despite the pain making it near-impossible to even move. I was offered no wheelchair or assistance. When we arrived at the maternity department, we had to find our own way around. There were no staff, the lights were off, and the place looked abandoned. We eventually found someone and were told again that we’d have to wait. We waited for an additional four hours to be seen, with no communication about what was happening. Upon being seen, I was once again dismissed. I was offered no pelvic scan, no pain relief, and given no indication of what was going on. I felt defeated and was still in severe pain. The following day, I lost a significant amount of blood, leading to a collapse and being unable to get up from the floor. I dealt with this alone as I was so put-off from revisiting the hospital. My second trip to the UTC was very similar. I acknowledge that there’s not always an easy fix for symptoms and complaints, but respect and compassion go a long-way. I felt unsafe and neglected as a patient, and felt that the staff (minus a few) were rude and abrasive.

When visiting the A&E, my experience wasn’t much better. Myself, along with other patients, had to sit on the floor, due to a lack of seating. The communication from staff was poor, multiple other patients shared similar frustrations. One gentleman had been left standing/waiting for so long that he collapsed in front of everyone. The hospital itself and the treatment of patients is shocking, it’s very unnerving to have to rely on this service in times of need.