"Stradbroke ward"

I was moved onto the ward from the SAU whilst still waiting for a diagnosis. The first thing to hit you was the heat and the smell of urine. There were no beds available so I had to sit in a wheel chair in the middle of the ward for an hour. The ward was filthy. Urine on the floor with dirt and dust. Bedside cabinets and tables dirty and stained and dirty sheets from the previous occupant. I was shown to my bed space and that was the last I saw of anyone. No one showed me were the toilets or showers were or meals etc. no one brought me any water, nobody explained anything to me. When a group of doctors came to visit, none introduced themselves. They were rude and disrespectful and one tried to pin my hand by my side as he was prodding an already painful stomach. It was always different doctors who came to visit the bedside, always rushed never explained. Patients crying for help were ignored, toilet alarms ignored with patients having to get staff to help. Patients with full colostomy bags leaking on the floor with staff refusing to help. Impossible to get any sleep due to the heat and patients buzzing for help. All you can hear is staff at their station laughing and talking about nights out etc. It was obvious that cleaning staff were not cleaning properly and when I asked one if she could wipe my table down she tutted. Two patients had to find water for the rest of the ward two days on the trot as we had been forgotten. Patients had gone two days without a wash as staff had forgotten to come back to them until their relatives had intervened. In my own case I had been nil by mouth for 40 hours because everybody was waiting for a doctor to make a decision, eventually my wife had to challenge the nurses, who said all the doctors had gone home. Eventually I was allowed to eat. I was eventually discharged after 3 days with no diagnosis and a promise of an outpatients appointment which never came. I was already wary of coming to Ipswich Hospital due to the poor reputation it has with all my work colleagues but was forced to as an emergency admittance. I will never enter the hospital again by choice. The senior nursing staff were great, the minute their backs are turned things go so wrong and there is not enough discipline.