"Emergency admission to MAU"

Admitted to AMU Yellow last week after visiting my GP who was concerned I may have had sepsis. Arrived at MAU, told there would be a wait to see someone as no beds available. Saw a lovely nurse who was absolutely fantastic, taking ecg, bloods, inserting a cannula and all obs. This was all done in a side room. They were concerned about my observations as bp, pulse temp very high. Saw a fantastic doctor who explained I needed a bed asap and did a very thorough examination. Taken to a bed on yellow ward after, where I again saw the Dr and a constultant who explained the course of treatment and plan which was to go ahead. Connected to a drip which ran for 2 hours, however when finished it took the nursing staff over 3 hours to come and disconnect it.

After getting 40 minutes sleep the whole night I was not amused, no wonder why people dont heal well in hospitals if they are moving people to and from wards at 3am in the morning waking everyone up!

No further observations were taken during the night. Next set of obs taken at mid morning. Then they had questionned why more hadn't been done! it was clear to see the early shift nurse was extremely busy, gave me my morning medications. Consultant came to see me in the morning asking me "why was I even in hospital" I explained well it certainly was not by choice my gp had rushed me in. Explained what investigstions needed to be done (same as what the consultant said the night before, which were not done). I was told the results would be back by 4pm and I could possibly be discharged.

An F2 doctor, came and took bloods. Did not explain what the bloods were for and took the bloods without washing their hands, no gloves used. The doctor took the bloods, walked off with the needle exposed across the other side of the ward and then disposed of sharps then (surely not up to PHT's policy standards for infection control/sharps disposal policy? ) The bloods were then "sent to the lab" and apparently got rejected because she had sent the wrong blood bottle type. So a second go at taking a blood test, again with no gloves, hand washing or sharps bin disposal? A throat swab was taken by the nurse and sent to the lab.

The morning shift finished, with nurses handing over. No nurse "assigned" to be during the afternoon. I understand its a busy ward, but what ever happened to the "hello my name is..." campaign? No nurse introduced themselves to me, nor did anyone come and speak to me for the next 6 hours! Yet again no observations taken, supposed to be monitored?

An agency nurse then came over took my observations and reported their concerns to the gp. Yet again nothing was done. Despite having a high temperature, not once was I offered paracetamol to try and help bring it down! I asked the nurse if they had any update on my discharge, or if any results had come back. At this point I had to ask to some paracetamol.

It was clear to see the ward was extremely busy, 2 more emergency admissions came in, with them taking up all of the nurses and doctors time.

A couple of hours asking for my results, I asked again. To be told by the F2, im not currently a priority and that I would have to wait. I had been waiting very patently for many hours now, with noone informing me of what they were planning to do for me!

At quarter to 8 it was clear to see the doctors and nurses shifts were ending. The F2 asked for my temperature to be taken, which was taken. The doctor then said they would speak to the consultant as they had not recieved my swab result yet.

Fresh faced, proactive consultants, doctors and nurses then started their shift. Within 10 minutes everything was starting to fall in place for my discharge. Asking me how I felt and I told them I had simply had enough being in there and wanted to go home. Within another 15 minutes, my cannula was out, TTO'S given and discharge summary printed, I was discharged.

Now I am a community nurse, being qualified for over 3 and half years. I did 4 of my 6 student placements at QAH and work closely with them on my day to day job.

I think areas that need to be looked at are introducing "hello my name is" I could not tell you one name of any of the nursing staff I saw. Intentional rounding was completed without even asking me any questions. Now I understand as a 24 year old I may be independent, but I was in hospital for a reason.

The correct infection control procedures were not followed by the F2.

The lack of communication between staff and patient was abysmal.