"Breast cancer care"

Anything else?

Between August and October 2013 I was admitted twice to Lewisham Hospital as an emergency. On the first occasion I was diagnosed with neutropaenic sepsis and on the second occasion I was suspected to have a blood clot in my arm. In August, I was sent to A&E by the Guy’s on-call oncology registrar because of high temperature. I was told by the oncologist from Guy’s hospital that I would be treated quickly as he will inform them of them. When I arrived at the Lewisham Hospital A&E reception I was not expected and had to wait. After another phone call to the oncologist, things went smoothly, the doctors and nurses did a great job and I was transferred to Laurel ward around 1.30am. I was told that the next day I would have a scan of my breast as my wound was the source of the infection. The next morning, the admitting consultant confirmed that I needed a scan during and that I was booked to have it very soon. The ward nurses were very busy, one of them not very polite; unfortunately my antibiotics were administered at irregular intervals and after pressing a buzzer I always had to wait much longer than I wished. I kept asking about my scan but nobody knew when it was going to happen. My wound redness was spreading so I really wanted to find out more and how this was going to be treated. None of the staff members could give me the answer. After 4 days of waiting I spoke to the ward manager and said that I would complain. I had the scan within an hour. Luckily at that time the consultant from Guy’s Hospital, who did my surgery, was consulting patients at Lewisham and after having the scan I was seen by him and only he was able to answer all my questions related to my illness. I was eventually discharged at 11 o’clock in the morning on day eight with some oral antibiotics to take home. Unfortunately I was not able to go home on that day because my medications were not on the ward untill 7 pm! By that time I got again a temperature 37.8*C and I was worried that if my temperature would increase and I would have to go again through A&E to come back to the hospital. I asked to stay overnight in the hospital for another blood test in the morning which I had. In September I was admitted to the Lewisham hospital again. After seeing my GP, I was sent to hospital suspecting a blood clot in my left arm. I arrived in A&E at 1pm so I believe there was plenty of time to do my scan instead of waiting till 6pm to be assessed without the scan and admitted me to the ward. I stayed on the assessment ward over the night along with patients with chest infections. In summary, I’m happy with my clinical outcome as I am now well as a result of the treatment provided at Lewisham, but I would be grateful if I could be assessed more timely in the future with better communication between different staff members.