"Emergency In Patient, Grantham District Hospital, EAU,"

Transport

Transferred to Grantham City Hospital A&E by Ambulance, following high fever, severe shaking, severe pain, low blood saturation.

Waiting time

Ambulance arrived after about 7 hours of first call. Ambulance staff superb, handover superb.

Ambulance staff

However pre-prepared Parkinson's medication pack was not allowed and had to be transferred to Green bag leaving some important information behind.

Medication

No wait at A&E, preliminary diagnosis, pneumonia, respiratory system failure.

Staff skills

I felt very ill and due to underlying conditions such as Parkinson's and recovering from Prostate Cancer, I wasn't sure I would make it.

Transferred to EAU.

Staff excellent. Initial tests very quick.

Took some time to agree how to handle Parkinson's drugs as they are required every 3 hours, but drugs trolley was only three times a day. Agreed self administered PD drugs in the end. But mistake made in transcript on drugs trolley so had twice daily maximum for first few days causing severe discomfort. Seemed like lack of awareness of self administered medication protocol.

Manager

Was given fluids through cannula in the back of my hand.

Given Antibiotics 3 times a day through cannula.

Regular ops and blood tests.

One evening shift seemed seriously understaffed for the number of patients.

At the end of the shift antibiotics were injected through cannula in 3 seconds, this should have been three minutes.

One morning, I woke with leaking cannula, wet bed, wet clothing and arm three times normal size, significant discomfort.

In General:

Cleanliness good.

Protocol knowledge poor.

Overnight staff generally very good, but felt like some lacked training.

Response to pressing call button was often too long.

Some equipment didn't work properly.

I found medicine management poor.

Handover of information between shifts could be improved.

Environment noisy and not conducive to recovery in my opinion.

Staff and care generally well beyond my expectations and credit and thanks to them.

Hospital Management poor in my opinion.