"Orthopaedic Care"

8 months ago I had surgery on both my arms and needed to stay in hospital overnight to get my pain under control. The experience was fine for the most part and the staff were great in the lead up to the surgery and the morning before the surgery.

After the surgery I needed assistance to go to the bathroom due to both arms being operated on and unfortunately I did not have a good experience with this. The first time I needed the toilet after surgery I was left on a commode for about 20 minutes without any way of getting assistance without shouting. Again in the morning I was left needing the bathroom for over 2 hours. I asked 2 nurses each, about half an hour apart, who said they would come back to me once they had finished their quick task. When neither of them returned I pushed my assistance button and asked a third staff member who said they would go and get the nurses. I ended up pacing near my bed and had resigned myself to just go stand over the toilet so that I didn't end up wetting myself on the floor. Eventually the cleaner saw me distressed and managed to go and get one of the morning staff to come and help me. The night staff at no point apologised and just walked past me later to go home.

This was a particularly embarrassing situation for me made worse by how it was handled. I am a young woman and being put in the position where I had asked for help multiple times and was left feeling like I was going to have to be incontinent was very upsetting. I work in a hospital and I understand that people are busy however I do not feel that this was ok.