"Ward 47 RVI"

I was just discharged from ward 47 after 4 days being in.... After having been in hospital on many occasions before I was shocked just how bad this latest stay was. I've never had a bad experience in any hospital before..

AandE were brilliant the docs and nurses were very understanding and in fact seemed more attentive than the nurses and student doctors on the ward yet the AandE staff are obviously so much busier. From not getting meds on time or sometimes at all. I was on I.V antibiotics and they missed 4 doses in a row between 2 shifts. They wouldn't listen to me when I told them my canula was out of the vein after I asked for 3 hours for it to be done again because I knew it wasn't in right. In the end I fell asleep and then the next day they woke me up saying they had to flush my canula then give me more antibiotics.. I had literally just opened my eyes so hadn't really became fully awake so let them pump the flush in and then attach the drip... WIthin minutes I remembered about it not getting changed and started noticing my hand swelling rapidly and the pain began to start and quickly escalate. Typing this now and my hand still is massive..

They also tried to refuse me a taxi home so I said I wasn't going to allow them to discharge me without one.. Up until the morning/afternoon of my discharge I couldn't walk. That morning I had just got the use of my right leg back barely... Still in agony and still almost impossible to walk. But I managed to get to the main entrance for a ciggy but it almost killed me. But That was without a big holdall full off my stuff.

They also knew about my mental health issues and that when home I don't go out by myself and yet they still tried to refuse a taxi. Right up until the point I told them I couldn't be discharged if they didn't arrange it for me. Obviously they needed the bed cause in the end the ward sister who I must say was great and had no issues with got it sorted with the bed manager. Then on release I was given 2 items of meds from them.. Was supposed to be 3 items. The 3rd item being the thing that had actually meant I could be released as it had overnight reduced the swelling massively.. The same thing I'd been telling the nurses and doctor for 3 days I needed.. Anti-Inflammatory drugs. I told them many times they needed to give me them and they didn't. So I do feel I'd have spent max two nights in if they'd had of listened to me. I know am not a trained doctor but it's common sense.. Anti-inflammatory drugs take down swelling.......!

I was also written up for oramorph every 2 hours and the most I got it was 3 doses in a day. I was in constant agony and they just seemed like they didn't care. There was 5 nurses/student nurses who were brilliant during my whole stay the rest seemed mediocre at best. I understand they're busy but they cannot leave you to suffer the way they did me. I am actually thinking about looking into causing unnecessary suffering because I truly believe that's what they have done. I am totally against people taking action against the NHS as I know the NHS is struggling with cashflow as it is. But if I don't speak up this is just going to continue. I literally saw other stories just like my own from ward 47 on my google search which brought me to your page in the first place.

I do hope you can staff the wards properly because I do feel that the reasons behind all this are due to the fact that there are not enough nurses on the wards to begin with and they are on very strange hours which again is going to cause their minds to be more forgetful as they are of course going to be tired.

No doubt this will be swept under the carpet as av seen others complaining that they got no reply or their story wasn't shown and was hidden from everyone and only the good gets posted. Maybe it's time you started posting the bad as much to show the government that staffing levels are pretty diabolical. I don't hold anything against the staff the RVI or the NHS I have only had this bad experience other times have always been pretty good. But in this day and age this shouldn't be happening to anyone.

Thanks for reading.

Oh I also forgot about this. A vulnerable patient on the ward was being handled in a potentially dangerous way so I shouted over to the staff member about it and was dismissed. An accident predictably occurred and it took them around an hour to get the patient up. Afterwards I heard this staff member trying to blame the patient. This would not have happened if they had listened to my warning.

Access to outdoors

Staff attitude

Treatment

Medication

Pain relief