"Short stay ACU"

After been seen in A & E I was kept on the ACU.

The Doctors I saw were very helpful and thorough, the time in between is not great.

I must say there were some very elderly, poorly people on the ward who understandably needed lost of care.

Once they were settled and quiet on the ward, the support worker (purple) uniform opened and proceeded to eat very noisily either crisps or popcorn, which went on for some time probably used to partially hearing patients, but I was much younger.

The next morning visitors began to arrive, the bed across from me had up to 6 visitors, who were having a good catch up which went on most of the afternoon, the porters had to ask them to move several times as he couldn’t get on the ward, nobody asked them to be quiet and respect the other patients, I was in pain and absolutely shattered.

Pain relief was given very sporadically (not through the night) on the day shift, I had access to less pain relief and peace than if I had stayed at home.

Day shift staff were un-approachable or assumed I didn’t need to be there.

I was discharged with no after care or pain relief.

I had a lumbar puncture at 3 pm and thought I would get some advice and pain relief for that, and for the condition I was admitted for.

I felt worse then when I was admitted, sleep deprived, in pain and confused about what to do after.

It is a shame as some aspects of care were very good, the basic care lets the unit down.

I am now chasing pain relief and advice from my GP, putting more strain on them.