"Corridor Care"

Attended A&E then moved to their overspill area whilst awaiting bed allocation. Requiring regular pain control due to crushed and fractured vertebrae . Ct scan back to overspill and met by SN who watched me struggle to get off chair. I was in agony and asked them for more pain control. After waiting for 10 mins and nothing forthcoming I pressed my buzzer. They came back in and said I was not the only patient in the area and they were busy. I said I appreciated that fact but I looked you in the eye 10 mins ago and asked for pain control before you started attending to another patient. They virtually shoved the syringe down my throat when they came back, obviously annoyed. 

I was allocated a corridor care bed in ward 111 which was right outside a patient's room and no curtains or blinds to separate us, just a bare window. I had no access to a buzzer and got a row from the nurse when I had to shout for pain control as I was disturbing other patients. I also had to use a commode in front of a window facing outside with no privacy . I was not given the opportunity of a wash it a shower and was then decanted to ward 203.

This ward was not set up for an unwell patient and as my pain increased and I couldn’t get out of bed they just ignored me. I had no wash that day nor the next and just got given more painkillers. 

Eventually after they realised I was unwell they moved me back to ward 111 when they realised I had not passed urine  for over 36 hrs, I was catheterised me much to my relief. 

This time I had a corridor care bed but it was a treatment room converted into a room with no en suite facilities. I stayed there 5 nights before being moved to ward 306 to await discharge the following day. This did not go ahead so I had another night in ward 306 because my letter and meds weren’t ready. For a hospital that was desperate for beds you would think that they would have meds and letter ready to free up beds. 

The nursing staff in ward 306 were the best nothing was too much trouble and they really showed compassion to their patients. Ward 111 was a mixed bag, mostly positive in their care. As for the nurse in A&E, I was disappointed by their lack of compassion.