"I believe my treatment on that ward was atrocious."

I arrived for my op at 4pm as was told to do in my letter. I sat in a waiting room full of one family for 3 hours and felt very out of place and intimidated by them all. Ignored totally not offered food or drink. Given bed at 7pm, then ignored totally until 1am when I asked for water. The night nurse asked my name as no notes were at the bottom of my bed. She asked if I'd been seen to which I replied not by anyone since shown where the bed was. She asked me if I was booked in which I wasn't and I had no wristband either. She had to do my booking in and get a doctor to come and see me. She was only person to speak to me in 9 hours.

Obviously the consultant and anaesthetist were both professional and excellent bedside manner when arrived first thing next morning. Both were faultless throughout my stay. The nurses I met didn't seem to give two hoots about me and there were other patients in the room with me. One of them had Alzheimers and never shut up all night long. Needless to say I looked forward to having the anaesthetic just so I could sleep a little.

Visitors are allowed by the dozen per bed which happened as soon as I was given a bed at 7pm. There were about 10 of them visiting the woman in the next bed. This amount of visitors continued for this patient each visiting time. even when I came back from my surgery- regardless of the fact I needed to sleep and recover and was in extreme pain. The noise from other peoples visitors was disgusting so I had to go home to sleep the next morning in the end even though I didn't feel well enough.

I nodded off but awoke a little later to find a man (patient) stood inside my curtains watching me sleep when I complained I was told he wasn't well. To be honest, that is your responsibility as a hospital to keep me safe in my sleep not mine. You should keep other patients under control.

I suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome due to being attacked by a man. From then, I didn't sleep and was terrified and it caused me flashbacks. The night nurse said he needed a carer to keep watch and said she would ring up and get someone to keep him in his own room.

Not once was I offered alternative food due to me being unable to eat because of my operation so starved until I requested ensure plus to drink. The noise was unbearable including inconsiderate staff.

I got no help regarding my needs either. In fact they never once asked me if I had any. They were not taken into consideration when shoving me in such a noisy frightening ward. It was worse than Piccadilly station with so many people in and out so definitely not a place where recovery is possible at all especially for someone with my conditions. It was more than noisy and terrifying. I had no privacy from male patients and visitors when going in my nightwear to the bathroom and I don't want men seeing me in my nightwear when getting in and out of bed. Some of us don't want to show off our bodies to all on sundry just because we are poorly thanks very much.

Altogether I believe my treatment on that ward was atrocious.