"I was left in great pain without being assessed"

I was admitted to the ERI by ambulance one Friday in June at approx. 1700 . I was suffering from severe abdominal pain and regular vomiting caused by chronic pancreatitis . This was diagnosed in 2014 and I have had many similar flare ups over the past six years .

Soon after I was admitted I was seen by a doctor in casualty who took details and offered me IV morphine to ease the pain. They also told me that the GI dept had been informed I was here and somebody from there would see me soon . I pointed out that I was taking 40mg MST every day and that giving me 10mg IV morphine might not help much , they replied that it was all that they could give me but I would get something stronger from GI staff once they had assessed me. The IV morphine didn't have any effect on the pain and I was given several further doses until I felt it was pointless taking any more because it was having no effect and that taking more morphine might restrict my chances of being given something stronger by a member of the GI staff. Every time a nurse administered the morphine they waited to see if it was working and when it hadn't, they all told me not to worry because someone from GI would see me soon and give me something to properly help me . I frequently told them that my pain was at an 8 to 9 out of 10.

    Around 2100 I was moved to the Acute Medical Unit , Base 2 and the last thing the nurse from A&E told me was that she hoped GI would see me soon and give me some pain relief at least. My pain was still between and 8 and 9 until it gradually subsided to an 8 out of ten about 0800 on the Saturday. By this point I had been in hospital for fifteen hours in agony but by then I was getting more and more distressed because nobody from GI had turned up to give me something to help me .

It wasn't until 1015 that a GI specialist saw me in the ACU. I made sure I was up , dressed and had had something to eat before then because I was determined that I was leaving hospital soon by this point . I told him my pain was an 8 out of 10 but I hadn't been sick again . They told me that I could be discharged that day but said they would get someone to speak to me about my newly diagnosed diabetes of which I was unaware until my blood sugars were closely monitored the night before.

By midday I was so fed up with the wait and asked the nurse on duty to remove the canula from my arm and return my supply of morphine MST tablets . I also explained that the reason I was desperate to leave was because I was upset about how long it had taken GI to see me . She asked me if I would wait for a discharge letter , which she stated wouldn't take long and I agreed because I didn't want it to look like I had not met my obligations as a patient by discharging myself , particularly when I was still in a great deal of pain .

I was finally given my letter a little before 1800 on Saturday, 6 hours later . When I read the discharge letter it incorrectly states that I was given IV morphine which worked .

I am writing to complain primarily about the time I was left in great pain in hospital without being assessed by somebody who was in a position to help me. I have always regarded a 10 out of ten on the pain scale to be pain so bad I pass out so to be at 9 or 8 for me is almost completely unbearable.

In 2014 I first experienced similar pain and was admitted to ERI again by ambulance and had an almost identical 17 hours plus wait to be seen by a GI specialist. On that occasion I discharged myself because I was so frustrated at being left in hospital in pain and nobody who could help me did . I am not making the 2014 event a complaint but am including it as it provides vital context as to my reasons for not being admitted to hospital when my pain becomes unbearable and my daily MST tablets aren't enough to help.

I also want to point out the emotional distress my recent experiences in hospital have caused me. During the 15 hours I spent in great physical pain almost two weeks ago , I began to get more and more frustrated and then upset that nobody who could help me was coming . This led me to thinking that I would be better off at home and that it was very unlikely I would ever come back to hospital, no matter how much pain I was in.

The delay in me being discharged from AMU was also really frustrating , particularly since the staff knew that I was desperate to get home. I do acknowledge that an event happened around 1300 in Base 2 but that was dealt with within an hour. When I read the letter, I was very disturbed to read the false picture of my stay they portrayed and also how long it actually took him to write it. If they had checked with A&E surely they would have known the IV morphine wasn't working .The emotional distress took me several days to recover from . Today is the first day I have felt up to the task of reliving my experience in order to write to you