"The doctor in casualty was very kind."

What I liked

The doctor in casualty was very kind.

What could be improved

My friend was admitted to Selly Oak as an emergency very recently and expereinced both casualty and a trauma ward.

The care that my friend experienced was generally poor. She suffered a dislocation that someone tried to re-locate with no anaesthesia or analgesia. She was admitted to one ward and moved to another at midnight. She was not spoken to by the consultant on his round in the morning-he asked the nurse to tell him what had happened without asking my friend. She asked for analgesia and was left for well over half an hour on several occassions before receiving it.

The process of care that the doctors carried out was also poor. They agreed on one evening that she could be dischaged the following day and yet they failed to carry out the appropriate xray on the morning of her discharge and she had to send away 2 lifts home because no one was clear whether an xray was needed or not. Whilst she waited around until 6pm before being discharged she was using a bed which I am sure could have been put to better use if she had been discharged as anticipated in the morning.

The final straw came with a very impolite nurse who suggested that we were being impatient in requesting the take home tablets that we still did not have after 6pm (in spite of being prescribed the night before).

The Trust needs to look not only at achieving its government set targets but at ensuring that patients and their carers are receving a standard of care that is at least acceptable. It needs particularly to look at its clinicians and the way that they behave towards the patients and carers and at the processes that lead to disasstisfaction. This would not only enhance their reputation with patients but would increase there throughput of patients and lead an increased likelhood of meeting the targets they have to meet.