"Not enough staff for the patients"

Where do I start I have seen loads off stories about the nhs been understaffed and over worked… I want to state this is not a direct complaint about the nurses because the majority were lovely however 1 nurse to 9 patients is just unacceptable I think, especially on a surgical ward. I had emergency surgery on a Friday to remove my gallbladder after coming round in recovery I can remember been in excruciating pain and nothing helping however they managed to get the pain under control and I was took to ward 32 the surgical ward. The surgery I had, I should have been out the same day but I wasn,t they couldn’t get my pain under control on the ward.

That night my surgeon came to see me and said that they had worked over 90 hours that week and that they were off the weekend. Nothing about my surgery nothing about why I was in so much pain. The next day another surgeon came round who was doing the rounds, came to me and said I needed an emergency X-ray as my surgeon was worried a swab had been left in me!!! I went for an X-ray worried sick and in so much pain. I’d just like to state that I have had key hole surgery 7 times and this was the worst. I went back to ward and for 3 days and nights I was begging for pain relief been told 1 thing by one staff member and another by the other.

On the Sunday night around 2 o’clock in the morning  I had to go for emergency ct scan. Not once did anyone come up and and let me know how these scans had went. I was told by other surgeons that my surgeon was paranoid and that they may need to go back in and clear me out. On the Monday my surgeon came and said that there was no swab but on the ct there was fluid at this point they told me it was a difficult operation and that he had caught my liver in the operation and had to put a gauze on and that this could be what is showing as fluid but I had no new ct to verify this

Pain management came to see me and I’d like to state they were brilliant very professional and caring and wanted to get my pain under control the best they could.

I was discharged recently and I am going back to a different hospital for a second opinion I am still in absolute agony I can’t move without been in excruciating pain. The ward I was on every single patient isn’t getting the care they need I saw other patients in excruciating pain and struggling to cope, we would all press the buzzers and would just wait and wait for help.

I hope I never have to go back to that hospital again not blaming the nurses they have 9 patients to try and see to something seriously needs to change. I’ve been left been in more pain now than I was before the operation I’m just praying the hospital I go to can help me and I hope the patients on the ward get the care they need and deserve.