"Admission to Daisy Ward September, 2013."

I have a diagnosis of bi-polar disorder since 1992 & clinical anxiety & social anxiety disorder. In the past I have been admitted to Fairmile Hospital (I think) 8 times in the past though had been relatively well for fifteen years & not had an admission since 1999. September last year in the space of two weeks I was beaten up, my flat was burgled twice (2nd time it was trashed) and a close friend died of a brain tumor. I admitted myself as voluntary patient. Initially I was happy to be on Daisy Ward until I wanted to leave the ward to go to Asda -found door to ward was locked & told I could not go out. Since I was a voluntary patient & not held under a Section, this is illegal. I settles on the ward, made some friends (some of whom I have maintained contact with) and generally things were ok except the locked door & loss of liberty. There were times when I obtained permission to go out at a given, time later in the day. The time would come I would ask for the door to be opened & on 3 occasions was asked "Who said you could go out?". To be informed that that was the "other shift" thus In had to repeat the whole rigmarole again to go across the road to the shop. During the second week a large blister developed on the sole of one of my feet, this was extremely painful & after a few days the blister was huge & I was unable to walk & had to hop around the ward (I have photos of the blister which I took with my phone). The pain became so severe that I could no longer hop as this exacerbated the pain & I was reduced to crawling around the ward. There was nil medical intervention nor did anyone look at the blister, I had no pain relief (in a hospital full of doctors). I was not allowed out to go to A&E and was only able to purchase pain relief from Boots during a visit from my family (I was let out with them). My mother brought in a pair of crutches the following day after ward staff told me there was nothing they could do because "This is a psychiatric hospital, not a general hospital" thus the reason why they could not provide crutches. This ridiculous behaviour continued for nearly 2 weeks until a staff nurse, who I got on well with & had been on sick leave returned to work one day & called me a taxi to go to Royal Berks. The issue was resolved RBH by bursting the blister & I walked from A&E to the bus stop. Another day I went for walk with two patients (1man &1woman). On return we were separated & questioned where we'd been & I was 'told off' as I shouldn't be going out of ward with a girl! I questioned this & it was insinuated sexual activity had taken place. I said "are you calling me a rapist?" I informed her that I am gay. Her reply was that "Well ........ was with you too". This is a disgrace, an abuse of my right to privacy & tells me more of the mind of the staff than anything else. There are Human Rights and legal issues here. This is a hospital not a prison. Food was fine. Staff nice people but in a nasty regime.