"Attitude of staff members"

I was admitted to Treliske late at night. I was not an urgent case and nor did I expect to be treated as such. However, I spent a long and very uncomfortable night in a corridor on a terrible bed and by the time I was moved in the early hours, I was in considerable discomfort and somewhat delirious. 

After having the most painful bloods taken I have ever experienced (and I have a high pain threshold), I was moved to a bay in the Majors area of the emergency department. No one checked on me for hours and I was in and out of poor sleep. I am fully aware of the pressures of the NHS and am happy to be considered very far down the list of priorities, but I decided I had had enough and wanted to go home. 

I managed to get out of bed feeling exposed, really dishevelled, anxious and nervous. I approached a member of staff and said - Excuse me, can I ask a question? They were leaning against the counter of a long desk with monitors all along, holding a clipboard and they pulled theirself upright, looked at me, and said, with a look of disdain across their face -  Can you ask someone else?

This was followed by a smirk and a glance both ways at their colleagues, several of whom laughed after they said it and saw myself, a rather pathetic looking patient, walking towards them. I was shocked and disappointed and asked if they wanted me to find someone else. They said nothing so I simply said I wanted to go home and they said I would have to wait. I went back to the bay to lie down.

A while later, I started my menstrual cycle. I gained the strength, once more, to approach the staff that sat along the desk. This time, a member of staff who was sitting down at a monitor looked at me as if I was causing them so much inconvenience that I almost walked away again. I asked if I could have some sanitary products. They just looked at me and sighed. I waited. They said - Not right now. I went back to the bay and lay down, utterly bemused by both members of staff’s bedside manner. I have only ever experienced amazing care from NHS staff and have never felt so small and uncared for in my whole life. 

I am sorry to see and hear constantly of the pressure and strains that the amazing staff at the NHS are under, I certainly would not want to work there. But I was scared and alone and just wanted to ask a couple of questions. Both members of staff have left me playing their attitudes and responses to me over and over in my head since being home and I wish I could tell them how cruel I felt they were to me in that moment of utter vulnerability.

Thank you again to the NHS for all you do.