"I had trouble getting my drugs on time"

I went in to Royal Hants County Hospital for a bowel operation. The doctors and surgeons were top class, quite opposite to the nursing care I experienced.

I am a diabetic type 2 and I need drugs at meal times. For the first few days I was taking them myself on time. However, on the insistence of the nurses the drugs were locked away and they had to administer them. I was never once given the drugs on time, the worst being at night time.

I had my evening meal at 6pm and after asking several times I was given my diabetic tablets at 11pm. The nurse said I should change my eating times to 11pm to match his visit to the ward. (A big no no according to the doctor.)

I felt that the cleanness of the ward was not up to scratch. A cleaner would come around and use the same cleaning cloth to clean the toilets and wipe the table near the bed. I didn’t see hands being washed as staff went from patient to patient. Patients that passed their bowels in bed were left for hours.

I think this hospital would have been better in Victorian Times.