"Traumatising A&E experience but great..."

What I liked

On the ward all nurses and doctors were very caring and helpful. I always felt well looked after.

What could be improved

I had to wait in A+E for four hours before I was seen by a doctor. Then it took another hour and a half to get a bed on the ward. I was suffering from severe sickness during pregnancy and can therefore understand that other more life-threatening injuries might be prioritised. However, I was in so much pain I could only lie on the floor, clutching the sick-bucket I had brought myself. A nurse told me that I could not stay on the floor because this was unhygienic. She said she was going to try and get me seen by a doctor sooner. When my partner checked with her again 30 minutes later, he was told we just had to wait until a doctor became available.

Because of the sickness I was suffering, I found most of the food on the ward unsuitable. Anything acidic, too fatty or spicy or containing lactose did not agree with me. Even tough there were several choices of main course for lunch and dinner, there was only ever one vegetable side available, which always seemed to run out too quickly.

My room was right beside the nurses' main desk, and it was quite loud a lot of the time. Especially when another patient rang their alarm it often took them minutes to turn the beeping sound off. And this is despite me being able to see and hear that there is sufficient staff available.

I have one final comment to make. It might not be possible to change this, but as a patient needing rest, I would have appreciated being disturbed less often. It seemed like every 20 minutes someone else was entering the room, some to clean, some to bring me medicine, some to measure my blood pressure, etc. This meant I could never sleep for more than 45 minutes straight during the daytime.