"Left feeling very uncomfortable"

My son was admitted at the weekend and we spent three days/two nights on the ward in the children’s hospital.  The service from every staff member we encountered from a&e, through triage, the Porter and staff on the ward with was incredible, that is until this morning.

I’m sorry I don’t know the correct job title for this person, one of the staff who changes the beds.  I completely understand the need to wake patients and get wards ready for the doctors doing their round in the morning, but maybe a little bit more respect and compassion wouldn’t go amiss,  we were woken up at 8am by this person which is totally fine, but it was quite abrupt and as we hadn’t slept much in two days my son was struggling to wake. We were in a shared ward with another 3 beds, two of which were adult males with their children and one was another mother like myself.  This staff member continued to open the privacy curtains all the way round our beds and button them open, I was still in my pyjamas and left feeling very very uncomfortable in this shared room with two males there too.  

Parents are not allowed to use the toilet in the room which I completely understand, so walking out into the ward and down the corridor to the visitor toilet to get washed and dressed for the day was quite embarrassing when there was a congregation of doctors and nurses at the room door doing their jobs.  I felt I was unable to close our curtains back over so I could get dressed as the staff member was quite insistent on getting all the parents beds stripped and folded away which again, I completely understand, I feel that a bit of respect should be given to the parents too. After speaking to the other mum I’m the same room she shared the same feelings as me too, she also got her curtains almost pulled off the track without any word of warning or even an acknowledgment.

It’s a shame as the NHS is a superb service and we are very lucky for all these hard-working doctors and nurses but when I was at my lowest with very little sleep and in a constant worry if my son was needing surgery or not. I was made to feel very awkward and uncomfortable.