"Impossible to sleep in MEAU"

I was admitted direct to Lincoln hospital MEAU by my GP, entering just after 5pm with breathing difficulties I was seen quickly and assessed with all bloods taken, swabs etc etc. I was told the blood would be checked quickly and a doctor would be in soon. Alas it took a little under 4 hours to be told I was being admitted but yet no doctor had assessed me and I wanted to know apart from the obvious why I was being admitted.

I was transferred about 10mtr from the assessment room which was needed because they are busy, to a bed on the ward and sat in the unit next to this precious bed for another 2 hours. Now this ward is full of very ill patients and during the 2 hours my wife and I waiting to chat to a doctor we observed the duty doctor standing at the nurses station reading patient folders and slowly walking from the counter to the middle of the ward and back again hardly ever communicating. I watched them pick up my own folder on 2 occassions, have a browse then put it back, that was encouraging, was my illness not in their expertise or were they simply support staff with a stethoscope having a read.

At this time I was the only patient sitting next to a bed waiting to be seen but this they seemed to ignore, I even heard a nurse and student nurse reminding them that I was sitting waiting with my wife. I am sure they were probably doing something but I didn't even see them going to another bed they simply stood reading at the counter or walked to the centre of the ward picked up a folder and went back again, oh sorry I did see a pen in their hand and I think they were signing some of the folders. It was now around 11. 05pm and I told the nurse that I'd had enough and was going home, I had been advised that I would probably need a chest xray so I asked them to get the doctor to write an appointment and I would come back the next day.

The nurse was sincerely apologetic and told us they would talk straight away with the oncoming doctor as they were in the middle of a changeover. My wife then went for a stretch and heard the original doctor stating or possibly complaining that they had been there up to 11pm the night before also (I know it is long working hours you do but we are your customers at the end of the day so apologies for being ill doc). The new doctor did assess me at 1130pm telling me they had been very busy, I was fully aware of that fact but this doctor wasn't the problem and they were excellent but it was as if the first doctor had simply got to their last 60 minutes or so of shift and switched off leaving the outstanding work for the oncoming doctor.

It was almost decided through my wife and the doctor that I was staying so after removing my shoes I knew that was it, my wife left at a little before midnight.

The ward is full of very sick patients and although my own breathing was not good I felt that I could have come back and the bed could have been used for someone more sick than myself but the doctor and nurses thought otherwise. I was moved at around 2am into the short stay ward next door and had an xray sometime between 3 to 3. 30am, there was absolutely no sleep on night one or during the next day what with patients in pain shouting out and other noises but until the second nights stay it was then that I started assessing the other noises.

After all the tests I was informed that the original viral infection I had been suffering had nigh on cleared and the other tests were positive in a good way, I was then told that I was hyperventilating and I also had a deep cough that left me tingling. I was told by a duty daytime doctor on day 2 at 1330 that I need to control my breathing by doing exercises as it was apparent that I was very anxious and they couldn't allow me to leave until my breathing had calmed and they had controlled the coughing fits that left me tingling, numb and dizzy. I tried to inform the doctor that I've been attempting to control my breathing for over 3 days but it was not being listened to and all I got in response is that I need to breath properly.

So I decided to sit motionless for the rest of the day on top of my bed breathing deeply and slowly but the cough usually put a stop to that, however I persevered and felt that by 8. 45pm on day 2 I had nearly got it under control and happy in the knowledge that I was getting on top of Part 1 of exercise 'Get me home so I can sleep', Part 2 was the cough but surely I could simply take some form of medication at home and in turn this could release the bed, in theory it all sounds so easy and even the student nurse thought it may have potential but not to hold my breath pardon the pun.

Moving forward a few hours the patients on the ward completely changed with all being moved out except for myself. New patients arrived during the early evening so lots of banging of beds against doors and walls etc as they were put into place. A new patient who was obviously much worse than myself with desperate breathing difficulties, coughing, chest pains and also I think, hallucinations had been placed into the ward. I was now really tired and could sense another night of sleep deprevation was forthcoming. Apart from the previous nights complete lack of sleep I was unable to nod off during the day, however, it was not only the noises being omitted from the patients illnesses, snoring or shouting that started to grate in my sleep deprived brain it was the unacceptable noise from some of the night staff.

On the brink of moving into my first slumber in almost 40 hours I was suddenly brought back to the real world with a loud bang when the door near to my bed was forced open with the bottom of a bed striking it, on top lay the latest transferee, I recalled the same noise and the jolt as my own bed hit the same door the previous night and caused simply by one person pushing so the door could not be opened ahead it had to be hit by the bed. New patient set up and not looking great but luckily the person was asleep or unconscious.

The man making all the noise was being assessed by the nurses who did a great job and wasted no time getting a doctor in, it was now well after midnight approaching 1am when the noise of bedside cabinets being slammed shut, chairs being dragged across floors, items dropped and those metal bin lids being let to shut down uncontrolled causing metal on metal banging and who was doing this yes the night staff. So if you did manage to drift into slumber mode listening to the poor patient loudly coughing and spluttering, snoring or calling out literally every few minutes you were quickly woken by the staff disregarding the so called quiet time. I always wonder why some nurses stand at the nurse station and talk like it is 3pm and not a bit more quietly at 3am, also the noise of ring binder type folders being opened and uncontrollingly let fly shut started to annoy myself and another man in the next bed but it continued until the folders had been updated.

All the work I did to control my breathing was now being undone and I could feel my heart returning to almost how it was feeling when my GP sent me into this ward for assessment. It was now after 3am on night 2 and still no sleep approaching but things had calmed down, was there a chance of maybe an hours sleep well no is the honest answer because those drip machines buzzing like an alarm clock and being ignored until a nurse decides to shut it down or someone presses a buzzer and asks about it or even as a patient did do, unplugged it which didn't actually stop it and he was told off, they are loud enough, it is an alarm so why does it take so long to address it when they go off, this is also the case when the telephone rings not always but during the night it just keeps ringing, in my thought process if I was the caller at 4am and it wasn't answered in at least 5-6 rings it could mean there is nobody near it but they can be assured most patients will be awake now as I lay there listening to others quietly saying, 'hang up or answer it' (polite versions) Is the phone unanswered and the buzzers ignored because the staff are too busy as they have been reduced to the least possible to save money, well possibly it is because they never seemed to stop unlike a certain counter leaning doctor from the night previous.

The castors on the drip holders, blood pressure holders and trolleys are simply not being maintained as the evidence is clear with the high pitched noises, squeaking and sometimes dragging sounds when being transferred around all night (they obviously squeak during the day too), maintenance schedule might help aleviated this one with a small spray of oil but nope that would never happen because it's just something else to add to a list of noises that will keep you awake if you are not put to sleep or seriously ill or is it the maintenance facilitators have also been reduced greatly and there is simply not enough support staff to keep up with the workload.

It is hard to argue with the work the nurses, student nurse and other staff do because they are so kind, sincere and definetly run off their feet and you cannot compensate for patients behaviour due to illness or otherwise but come on slamming shut lockers dragging chairs across floor chatting loudly and banging through doors (unless it's an emergency) etc etc is simply unacceptable in the late of night and/or early hours when patients are attempting to get what sleep they can. When the phone rings, it is answered within 5 rings but whoever answered it obviously thinks the caller is in Australia, someone drags a chair at the nurses station across the floor (please use chairs with castors and ones that don't squeak), the lid on the controlled drugs cabinet is dropped so it closes loudly and to top it all the gentleman with the severe chest problem who seems to be calm and asleep has been woken up for blood pressure to be taken and his coughing is back with a vengeance and finally at 4. 55am I know in one hour and 5 minutes the day starts building again with Obs and some lights will be on, then in 2 hours all lights will be on as day shift begins.

What can I say except if I need to stay the night again I may just walk to the reception because it's quieter in there.