"Nightmare experience following emergency admission"

An award winning hospital? I beg to differ.

My husband was recently admitted via A&E. I cannot fault any of the staff in that department they were fantastic.

My husband was put in a room on ward 4B and all details of his requirements given to the night staff. He is disabled,a wheelchair user, suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and needs help with all of his personal needs such as getting into and out of bed,washing,dressing,using the toilet etc. He never once got any help with any of these tasks.

He is not the kind of person to trouble anyone or put anyone out,as we both understand that hospitals are busy places. However he was left feeling degraded and upset by the attitude and comments of the staff about the room smelling of body odour, the fact that he was only wearing a t shirt and no denture! The answers were no one helped him out of bed to wash,go to the toilet (which was unsuitable anyway but no commode materialised). He was unable to wear anything on his bottom half due to a very large and extremely painful abcess which was irritated by anything that touched it-at no time was he offered a hospital gown. His denture was in his toilet bag, but as he only had 2 sandwiches and 2 bowls of chicken soup in the 3 day stay it wasn't worth him putting his denture in!

He was put as "nil by mouth " twice whilst waiting for a slot on the emergency list but was given intravenous antibiotics in the meantime. The first time he wasn't put on a drip, this only happened once. Each time he was taken off "nil by mouth " he was never offered anything to eat or drink. However staff were quick enough to remove all water etc when he was put on nil by mouth.

His canula was a bit high on his arm and each time his blood pressure was taken this was caught and the needle bent. The staff just looked at him as though it was his fault when it caused him pain.

The consultant was very rough in their examination and made unnecessary comments when my husband cried out in pain. The attitude of the junior doctor was condescending and abrupt.

I was allowed to stay in his room on the second night of his stay, I was grateful for this as at least I was able to care for him as I do at home, as I dread to think what would have happened had I not been there.

It was a very traumatic experience for my husband and myself and one which we never want to go through again. Sad to say that even as I am writing this 2 friends are having the same experience with an elderly and infirm parent.

I dread to think what happens to patients who have no family or friends to look out for them.

If this is the way sick and vulnerable people are treated it's a very sad state of affairs.