"Disappointing."

Anything else?

Went to A & E for the second time in 2 months with my partner with acute gallbladder pain, was seen pretty quickly and the A & E doctor was very good, they did tests including urine test , she had a nurse trying to take blood when another nurse came over and said quite abruptly that my partner had a urine infection and was also pregnant which was a complete shock! We were told by another nurse that the way she told as this was unacceptable. We were then told that a surgical doctor was on his/her way to see us so we were taken to EAU with the hope of seeing the doctor asap, this was apprx 11pm and the doctor turned up at around 3pm, he said she should stay in and have antibiotics for 48 hours , we asked if we could go and take the antibiotics at home but he said no, i left the hospital at 5am . The next morning ......only apprx 4 hours after starting the antibiotics a diff doctor came round and said that she could go home after she had something to eat and drink as long as it stayed down, my partner informed me and as i was with her a month previously with the same condition i knew that when they say you can go it takes apprx 6+ hours to get a doctor to do a discharge letter and write up a prescription which turned out to be the same painkillers that she was on when coming into hospital for the pain which obviously didnt work. I made my way up and after she had something to eat the nurses tried to contact the doctor a fair amount of times to discharge her , after the usual 6 hour wait a registrar came round and said she may not be allowed to go unless they could get hold of the doctor that said it as he had not written it in the notes, a nurse said she was there when he said it but this was not good enough. Not sure what happened to the 48 hours of antibiotics .......maybe the bed was needed. The notes were eventually written up but not correct as they did not tell her she was suppose to stop taking one of the prescribed tablets she was already on as it was not advisable while pregnant, good job i asked.........or was it ...........as they phoned the doc , once again promised time and time again to come and re do the discharge summary, over a period of another 2 hours and numerous requests from nurses nobody arrived and we were told we could not leave the hospital. In the end the nurse gave up and said we should discuss the medication with our own GP and she was sorry and looked embarrassed about us waiting so long! Summary...... a lot of good people there but the communication is awfull, most doctors on both our visits do not read the basic notes and all say something different and as for the promises of going home soon you must be prepared for at least a 6 hour wait and then a following 2 to 3 hours to get things done properly. Overall not impressed and feel sorry for patients that have no family with them to keep on top of Colchester General Hospitals poor communication skills! Must add a well done to certain doctors and nurses .