"Maintaining the dignity of patients"

I was unfortunate enough to have to be admitted to Borders General Hospital recently. I was in 3 wards - 5, 4 and the Stroke Unit. The attitude of some of the staff on all 3 wards is deplorable. I was made to feel at best a nuisance and at worse a liar.

When I was admitted to BGH I could not walk due to the pain. Despite this, when I asked for a commode, the nurse/auxiliary (impossible to tell their position) stood in the middle of the ward, pointed to the toilet and said "the toilet is only over there". I explained I was not mobile, the staff member then pointed to my crutches and again in a loud voice said "can you not even manage with those crutches?"

There were a number of occasions when the staff took so long to respond to the buzzer that I could not even make it to the commode - 20 minute wait was not uncommon. They did eventually leave a commode by my bed. The whole thing was embarrassing and left me with no dignity whatsoever.

I found the open visiting to be very stressful having a constant stream of people coming in and out all day is not good especially again if you need to use a commode. It is extremely embarrassing to use a commode even with drawn curtains in a room full of people.

Finally, I spent my last night in the stroke unit and I have to say one of the staff members in that ward is the most uncaring and rude person I have encountered in a very long time.  They had absolutely no bedside manner and made me feel like a child being told off. I asked for a commode for during the night and explained I had had one upstairs due to my mobility.

I was flatly refused a commode and told that they could see no reason why I could not manage to get to the toilet if staff helped me. I explained that I had not been on my feet since before I came in and I had a long term condition which meant I needed to use the toilet quickly and by the time I was helped to the toilet it would be too late. The staff member almost laughed at me and just said they didn't think that would happen. At that point I gave up. When the night staff came in I told them what had happened and they said having a commode was not a problem.

What on earth has happened to your commitment to maintaining the dignity of patients and treating them properly like human beings, not as something that is just getting in the way?