"Understaffed and overworked"

I have been diagnosed with a life changing lung disease. It's been hard mentally and physically to take in knowing that there's no cure for me.

I went to see my consultant not long ago. We had a really good talk about my diagnosis and the plan forward. The consultant could tell I was very anxious and feeling very low in my mood. I explained how I felt with the lack of support from the ILD nurses and other NHS services I had recently had experiences with. I have never had a serious illness before where I have had to be admitted to hospital. The experience of being in hospital at first was very overwhelming and confusing because my health condition had happened so quickly. I have been full of all different emotions for months now. After the conversation I had with the consultant I really had a  good think about things. They said that more people should complain about their own experiences more often so hopefully services will change for the better. 

I've been admitted to hospital with breathing problems a few times so I got to see more on what goes on in hospital and on the wards. I can't complain about my experiences because all the staff from nurses to housekeepers while I was in hospital was really good. What did shock me on every occasion I was admitted to hospital, though, was how over worked everyone seemed to be. Honestly I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The nurses worked well with each other as a team even under some very stressful situations with some difficult rude patients even though on each hospital ward I've been on, they all looked very understaffed and I could see at times how stressful it looked trying to keep the ward running. But the nurses, doctors, and all other staff were so caring and always had a smile on their faces when they came to see me, so I want to say thank you for all your care and support I was given.

Also I realised how understaffed the ILD nurses are. I now totally understand why I felt abandoned and not cared for, when I was cared for but the lack in communication wasn't the ILD nurses fault at all; like all of the departments I've been in its probably the lack of funding for more staff what is desperately needed. 😢 To say that all staff go to work because they want to to care for their patients and give as much help as they can is amazing I just hope the NHS trust reads this and makes some very important changes which are desperately needed.