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"Terrible pain in A&E"

About: Royal Lancaster Infirmary / Accident and emergency

(as the patient),

Got to the hospital on an ambulance with severe lower abdominal pain, took 2 tablets of paracetamol about half an hour before calling the ambulance but the pain didn't sussed. Firstly, I was extremely dissatisfied with the waiting time, as I was forced to wait almost 2 hours in line with only 2 other patients in front of me, all this happening while I was almost loosing my conscience because of the terrible pain. While I was twisting and turning, trying to find a position in which my belly wouldn't hurt as much, not a single member of staff came over to me and asked if I needed anything, in fact all of the ambulance staff and nurses I saw were standing in the corridor making jokes and laughing, instead of caring for patients. To make the matters worse I got kicked off the bed I was lying on and put into a moving wheelchair, when I tried to ask why that happened and to explain that I feel better when I lie down on my side, the nurse who I told all of this to rolled his eyes and told me that there are a lot of needy patients waiting, and not just me. Afterwards the doctor came over to see me and when he asked me to walk with him I replied that I can't really do so, he rolled his eyes this time and told me that if I am sitting in a wheelchair that means that the staff believe that I can. The attitude towards me as a patient has been fundamentally wrong from the very beginning and until the very end - when the doctor ran basic tests on me, leaving me for an hour and a half without any water and raising the side bars on a bed making it almost impossible for me to climb off and go to the loo. When the doctor returned with my results he confirmed that he thinks that I have an ovarian cyst but he can't run further tests and confirm the diagnosis because I haven't taken any painkillers upon my arrival to the hospital, making it "more difficult for the hospital to treat me". I was stunned and asked whether it is considered normal to dismiss a sick patient who was in severe pain for hours now just because she/he has taken medications at home and so refused to take them again at the hospital. The doctor then replied "What do you want from me? Why did you come to the hospital in the first place if you didn't want paracetamol? " The hospitals are nothing different from pharmacies, aren't they, you go there to have painkillers, and god forbid you request to have your health problem examined and proper diagnosis confirmed. Appalling and disgusting, and I have wasted more than 4 hours in this place to hear THIS. The doctor also mentioned that I made him look like a fool in front of the head doctor when he had to tell his boss that I haven't taken any painkillers. What's the deal with paracetamol and hospitals in this country anyway, is it considered some rite of passage that we, foreigners, aren't aware of? Whatever the case is, next time I would rather die than go to that A&E again.

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Responses

Response from University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust 9 years ago
University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust
Submitted on 13/04/2015 at 11:16
Published on Care Opinion at 11:57


We are really sorry that your experience at our hospital wasn’t what you would expect and are very keen to investigate and respond directly to you. Please would you contact our Patient Relations team on 01539 795497 to allow us to carry out that work

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