"I have been admitted three times in the..."

What I liked

I have been admitted three times in the last couple of months as an emergency patient suffering great pain. Although the A&E is usually very busy there must be a way of helping people in distress who are quite ill rather than leaving them slumped in a chair for 3 hours. Once admitted lots of help and efficient treatment from doctors and nurses.

What could be improved

The problems started when I was admitted to the wards. At least 50% of the staff are working very well together and make sure that you are looked after properly and that the right drugs are administered on time.

However the other 50% couldn't seem to care less. Changeover to less caring staff is very distressing. For example: not doing their rounds very often, leaving patients for hours on end without asking how they are or giving information or treatment, nursing staff rushing off as soon as they can to gossip amongst themselves and not engaging with the patient, being discharged too quickly after operations or other treatments,.

The second night on Elm ward was a nightmare. The nurses couldn't understand the doctor's writing so I didn't receive the intravenous antibiotics prescribed. They disconnected my drip whilst I slept because they couldn't find a pole to carry it. When coming into the bay at night they carried on conversations regarding their personal lives without any regard to sleeping patients. I'm quite scared to be away from home and can't wait to leave. I can however see why the NHS rate for re-admission is very high. One hour you're recovering on oxygen after an emergency operation with all the high standard of recovery care and the next hours they couldn't care less about you. I understand this is a small hospital with a very large population but please train staff to be more consistent in their care.

Anything else?

Communication between staff and staff between patients is often very poor. I'm certain that the outcome for patients would be a whole lot better if everyone adopted a more consistent and caring attitude. It's not fair to staff who are working for the patients best interests. They get the largest workload whilst others are just winging it.