"Unacceptable level of care and support"

I broke my ankle on a Thursday. The nurse practitioner I saw, Chris, was amazing! He was quick, thoughtful, & made one of the worst days of my life so much better by his care!

I was sent from a&e to TAU but didn't stay as planned as I went to QEU with my daughter for an emergency .Before I left a doctor asked me to sign a consent form for surgery. They never explained what I'd done just went through complications of surgery - not the actual surgery or recovery. At the time I was trying to get to hospital with my daughter so I assumed I could clarify these things later (to paint a picture my daughter was sat on my knee covered in blood during this interaction so I was clearly not thinking about my op).

On the Friday I called TAU to ask about next steps & explain I couldn't take the painkillers they gave me as they weren't compatible with breastfeeding. I was told to call my GP (at 6pm on a Friday) & that they'd call me sometime in the next 3 weeks.

When I got through to my GP, on the Monday when they open, they couldn't help me as the hospital hadn't transferred my notes. By this point I had survived without all the painkillers so I carried on. I had another question so called Tuesday. This time the nurse I spoke to seemed surprised I was at home with a broken ankle & had been for so long. I was then booked in for my operation Thursday.

I went into the hospital, a week after my accident. Was met with lovely friendly nurses in TAU & transferred to ward 21 to wait for my surgery. The nurses on ward 21 are all absolutely lovely & professional but it is not a place I'd wish on anyone.

I sat until 3pm without seeing anyone other than the student nurse (Ewa - who was an absolute star!) before it was confirmed my operation wasn't happening that day. At this point I asked if I could speak to a doctor to have it explained to me what I'd done & what they would do. They did get a doctor to speak to me - turns out what they said would happen during this interaction was not accurate based on my conversation with theatre nurse the next day!

During this day I witnessed the health care assistants repeatedly shout at an older women, I would say they were aggressive in their treatment of her. She didn't understand why they were keeping her in a chair, no one took the time to explain they just came in and went straight to shouting. If she said anything back they told her off for shouting at them. I wouldn't say she was shouting - clearly there was a background here but the way health care assistants treated this women was not acceptable. Other patients in the room would have to settle her after they came in shouting at her as she'd be in tears from their words.

I went home and came back the next day to Same Day Assessment Unit, told my operation would be first thing. By 11am it was clear it wouldn't be first thing & there some confusion on why the doctors hadn't been to see me pre-op. The nurse here Clancy was lovely & kept calling for any updates for me, which I appreciated as the lack of Comms creates stress for the patient!

I had my operation at 2pm. I did see the anaesthetist before I went in. I never saw the doctor who operated once. 

I was returned to ward 21 at 6:30pm. A nurse saw me to take blood pressure, left the cuff on with the machine beeping and disappeared. As it was handover, at no point did anyone offer me water or food even though I'd been fasting all day for my operation. My husband arrived 20 minutes later and was able to give me something.

The lights in the room where kept on until 11:45pm. Another patient was watching a hospital tablet loudly all through the night (serial killer true crime as well just to add to the gore). This same patient got into a loud disagreement with a health care assistant when he was transferring a patient in during the night. In the morning I asked if there were non-dairy options but told no, so good I had my own food otherwise wouldn't have been able to eat. Previous experience has been they'd find non-dairy options in hospital wards! 

I was waiting to be discharged. I sat in the ward room with a patient vaping, which was a really unpleasant experience. I will say the health care assistants in this room where really lovely to the elderly patients in the room (not the same ones as the other day). 

The doctor never came. Physio never came. No explanation given.

I needed physio to agree I could use crutches & get around my house, which seemed ridiculous given no one cared when I was at home potentially waiting 3 weeks! 

It appears a typo was made by the consultant, which also needed clarified and meant they were reluctant to discharge me. Only by making moves to leave myself did a doctor come see me (& that was a 2min conversation and they acted like they didn't want to be there). I suggest as part of their training the doctors spend a night on ward 21 and then maybe they'd have some empathy for the patients (& understanding on how sometimes hospital is not the best place for someone to recover!)

I'm not sure what happened with my case, it felt like I slipped through a lot of cracks! The nurses are doing an amazing job is a difficult system (the doctors need to do better!)