"Shocking, twice in one month!"

I was admitted to MMH, with written instructions for the team to manage my symptoms and liaise with the NHNN for transfer.

It took an hour to triage me, with the first 20 minutes having to stand, as relatives accompanying took chairs and little to no effort being made to rectify the problem, other than shouting from the nurse to stand up and let patients sit - not one person showed compassion and got up.

I was then sat in the majors waiting area for a further 2 hours, with 2 requests for meds being made before I got offered (laughably) paracetamol, for CSF pressure headache. I was given IV Cyclixine in the WR, despite expressing concern to the nurse if the effect it had on me and generally acted like a sedative on me - upon administration, I was promptly asleep, slumped on a chair and not monitored.

I was eventually found a trolley in majors overflow, denied analgesia, due to my notes having been incorrectly documented as 'patient refused' - the team in ED apologised profusely, after having been found crippled and sobbing in pain and advised it was corrected in my notes (although I didn't get any analgesia); if an excellent ICU sister who came to move me to AMU hadn't reviewed my notes whilst we were waiting for my bed, it wouldn't have been noticed that I had been written up as 8 hourly analgesia -completely insufficient and would have been further denied pain relief.

I was transferred to Wakely... where things went rapidly downhill (I didn't think it was possible to! ). I was woken at 1am to be told pack up, you are being transferred - an impossible task when my bed light didn't work and no ward lights on. The nurse distinctly told me that if the ambulance couldn't move me that night I would be blue lighted at 7am (a response from me was that would be completely inappropriate, as whilst acute, I wasn't in medical distress).

However, when transport eventually arrived at around 9am, it was a community ambulance -I felt this was unsafe, as no medically trained staff, I remained acutely unwell and was only managing on IV meds. It was rebooked, this time as a car... Little else than a taxi and I felt even less safe!

This left me very distressed, as I needed to lay flat to manage my symptoms and was embarrassed to have to be constantly disagreeing with the arrangements. I explained to the driver what had happened and they spoke to their control and took me back to the ward crying, unwell and very nauseated from being upright), where we both received a torrent of argumentation, including both witnessing a nurse saying to me that 'ambulances are not taxis! ... I wasn't ordering one due to inebriation... I was acutely unwell, being transferred to London for surgery. The driver put in a complaint about the behaviour of the ward staff to me.

I then wrote to PALS, who engaged with me well and I was then visited by the Head of Transport, who apologised profusely. It was arranged for me to go on appropriate transport, on the private vehicle later in the day.

In total, I spent 11 days in the hospital, requiring emergency surgery on a Sunday at the National..... So ambulances are not taxis for acutely unwell patients....?

I returned from A&E, having presented on the advice of 111 with query sepsis. Bloods and cultures were done, I was tachy and raised BP, yet sent to Meddoc, where there was a two hour wait. I was extremely upset to be dismissed so readily and easily. A full sepsis screen was not completed (no urine dip or CXR). I'm 3 weeks post op, having had soft tissue infection and now presenting with further infection, and knowledge that I was being seen in the ENT SoS clinic for new onset problems and review completed in the OOH GP later on.

Having not felt well enough for a two hour wait and very upset (I told the nurse in A&E, that I was shocked, amazed and disgusted that they weren't even waiting for bloods to return), I left and have been seen by own GP, who has diagnosed pneumonia and given further advice on sepsis.

I am genuinely amazed at how appalling the attitude, wait, treatment and clinical approach that is being applied in recent times.

As sadly, a frequent user, I am literally dreading my next visit.

Formal complaint to follow.