First I want to say how lovely the staff are, and I would like to make special thanks to a young man in A&E this week who was an absolute credit to you, he was kind, helpful, understanding, happy, and I could not praise him enough, sadly I don't know his name.
Sadly that is the praise over, I am not well enough to write a lot, but the experience of my visit to A&E was horrific, all that was wrong was pain and swollen knee meaning I could not walk, sit or lie down.
Calling 111, I was asked over and over again the same questions, by different people, call backs etc, why? when you are unwell that is the last thing you need, little wonder people misuse 999. I do not live in Manchester, so have no Dr in Manchester.
The ambulance came as expected non urgent but 1 hour 10 min to go around the corner to the hospital! ! The crew were great, but why make them use Sat Nav if it takes you the longest way possible?
I was put in a cubical by the ambulance crew and just left, the ambulance crew took away the pain relief gas, I could not walk, or get on a bed (the crew had to clean and make the bed first) and was just left, no one came to see me, no buzzer, no water, no toilet.
I have Asperger's, chronic depression and CH, and cannot be in or deal with public places, so the experience was horrific, when I finally got to see someone, I was kindly moved to a side room, but that was filthy dirty.
I waited and waited to see a Dr, and was sent to X Ray another nightmare, I knew it would need an x ray before I left home! ! waiting rooms, strange places, people are all a big problem and very upsetting for me.
Anyway I then got a Dr who planned to aspirate my knee, I have had this done before, no problem, the Dr was nice, but I do have to say, I don't think they had any clue what they were doing.
They had me in such an uncomfortable position, one leg on the floor, one on the bed, bent as it was against the wall, no back rest, so I had to try and hold my body up, which increased the pain, no anaesthetic, yes, no anaesthetic, imagine sitting in this bad position, in terrible pain, then they stick the needle in my knee and starts poking about, I was screaming, I had to stop them, THEN they said they would give me anaesthetic! ! I am no expert, but one would think the anaesthetic came before the pain, not after? They had the anaesthetic in their tub on the bed all the time. By now it was too late.
After that they could not even get the needle in, they did not know how to move / work the bed so my legs could go straight, or the back rest could come up. They gave up as I said I could take no more, the dirty needles with blood were not disposed of properly either.
Anyway the Dr agreed a prescription of Morphine etc and a return appointment on Friday. They gave me some morphine, and the prescription to be collected the next day.
I could not return, I could still not walk, so a friend kindly came to the hospital to get the prescription, he queued up, only to be told it was wrong, and I would have to return to see the Dr, thankfully my friend protested and went in a hospital search of the Dr, who was not on duty, after much hassle another Dr kindly agreed to speak to the pharmacy, and change the prescription.
Another long queue and my friend was told again the prescription was wrong again, how can so many things go wrong?
I won't go on, but I need to return to the hospital again, when I cannot walk, and in fear of the hospital, people, place and maybe have to go through all this again, or even worse be referred to another appointment.
"Dirty facilities and no anaesthetic"
About: Manchester Royal Infirmary / Accident and emergency Manchester Royal Infirmary Accident and emergency Manchester M13 9WL NHS 111 NHS 111 North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust / Emergency ambulance North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust Emergency ambulance Bolton BL1 5DD
Posted by westerton (as ),
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Update posted by westerton (the patient) 7 years ago