"Lack of communication at Royal Oldham Hospital Experience"

This story has been posted by Healthwatch Oldham anonymously. We have the contact details of the individual involved and will forward on any responses we receive regarding the matter.

"I was taken ill in the early hours of Monday 1st December. My wife was worried about me so called an ambulance. The ambulance took me to A&E at Royal Oldham Hospital at around 4. 30 in the morning. My wife wasn’t able to travel in the ambulance and made her own way to the hospital a short time later.

When I got to the hospital some tests were done in A&E and I was told I was being admitted to the AMU ward. My wife joined me on the ward. No-one asked what medication I was taking or when I took it. They didn’t ask for my next of kin or family contact details either. All the medication I had taken with me to the hospital had been locked away. This meant that I missed some of my regular medication and I didn’t have access to my asthma sprays while I was in hospital.

When I saw the pharmacist at tea time on Monday they didn’t know anything about my other medication – even though my wife had brought a copy of may latest repeat prescription with her. The nurse I saw wouldn’t let me take the medication I had brought with me because the hospital doctor hadn’t prescribed them.

My wife asked the nurses about my test results and x-rays and no-one was able to answer her questions.

My wife was also worried about my leg which looked strange. The nurse said ‘I know nothing’ – it wasn’t until I had been discharged and saw my discharge notes that it stated cellulitis as my condition. The hospital should have spotted this and given us advice about what to do about it.

On Tuesday 2nd December my wife was phoned by a nurse to say I was being moved from AMU to another ward. I didn’t know about this. About five minutes later I phoned my wife to ask her to come and collect me – I had been told I could go home!

I’m also not happy because we weren’t asked at any time who my GP is. My discharge letter from the hospital has the wrong GP on it. My GP is in a different practice (in the same building as the one named on the letter). "