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"Distressing time"

About: Princess Alexandra Hospital (Harlow)

I came to A&E as I was having a miscarriage at 11 weeks and was in excruciating pain. I was there with my partner but had to send him away to get me some clothes as I was soaked through with blood. I saw a triage nurse very quickly and told them what was happening. I was in quite a state alone in a&e in tears and in pain. Left a puddle of blood on the seat which I ask for a tissue to clean up and the nurse kindly told me not to worry they would sort it out. I was sent back into the packed waiting room. Running back and forth from the toilets of which there was only 2, so unlucky for me someone was using one of the toilets and the other was being cleaned (it was around 2am) so I was stood outside dripping blood. This being my first miscarriage I had no idea what to expect or how to prepare. After waiting around 4-5 hours in a packed waiting room with no updates or offers of any pain killers I was told there's nothing they can do I had to beg the doctor for some stronger painkillers. A bad situation was made worse by having to go through this in a busy waiting room. Surely I could have been treated with a little more compassion and gone through this with a hint of privacy and dignity.

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Responses

Response from Princess Alexandra Hospital 8 years ago
Princess Alexandra Hospital
Submitted on 07/03/2016 at 12:29
Published on nhs.uk on 08/03/2016 at 01:33


Dear Anonymous,

We strive to provide excellent care in every environment whether it is in an emergency or planned care and so, it is heart wrenching to read your story of what happened. This is not what we expect for our loved ones and so I am so sorry that you had to experience the lack of dignity and compassion you describe.

It would help us hugely if you would be willing to write to us to say a little more so that the Family and Women's Services Team could go over how this went wrong for you and how to prevent a recurrence. Clearly we needed to manage your pain better and find you somewhere more private to wait, but hearing from you directly would be so much more valuable than written comments on the NHS Choices site.

I do hope you feel able to make contact, we are on 01279 827084, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.

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