"The Ulster Hospltal."

I was taken by ambulance to the Ulster early am in mid January with severe pains in my chest and found it very hard to breath. The ambulance men were really great and very professional. we arrived at the Hospital an hour later. lwas left sitting in a chair for quite a while until eventually being seen by a doctor who took some blood and gave me something to ease the pain I was in. Iwas then sent in for a chest X-ray and told to sit out in the A/E reception which by this time was quite full. I sat there for what seemed like an eternity as I was in so much pain and I was sweating one minute and shivering the next. Four hours later I was taken into see the Doctor who stated that I may or may not had a small heart attack as my cardiac enzymes were raised, what he was sure of was thay I had pneumonia with pleurisy. At this point he explained that he would have to repeat the blood test for cardiac enzymes and it would be at least another hour before the results to come back. I again had to sit in the resception area until the results came back after an hour and a half. The Doctor told me that my cardiac enzymes were raised significantly to warrent my admission to Hospital. Then to keep the story as short as I can I sat in A/E until late in the evening when I eventually was told I was going to ward 11.

When I was taken up to the ward by a porter he left me off at an empty bed in a corridor in the ward. I changed into my pyjamas and got into bed. The fist I saw a nurse was at 3am, who took my observations and pain killers. One hour later a nurse came and told me I was to get onto oxygen as my blood oxygen levels were low. I saw a doctor and consultant at 10am on Wednesday who informed me that she did not feel that my heart was of any concern but that I definitely had pneumonia and pleurisy and would be treated with I/v antibiotics. I was moved into the actual ward at 2. 30pm that day. I remained in hospital until 3 days after admission and was told that I would be getting discharged later that day. I was told 3pm so I arranged for my son to collect me to take me home. At 3. 30 there was no word so went to ask one of the nurses who to say the least was less than helpful I then saw the doctor who had seen me earlier that day, she was very helpful and said that she would look into it. She returned a while later apologising stating there had been letter written for my GP and no one had sent word to the pharmacy for the antibiotics I needed to take home with me. They got a letter made out straight away and gave me the antibiotics I needed from the ward stock.

Iwas never as glad to get out of somewhere in my life I thought the whole experience was a complete shambles and had I not asked the doctor I could have been sitting waiting until even later that day. When you read this which is bad there were people worse than myself at least I got a bed quite a few others had to sit in a chair all night as no more beds were available. I have been out of hospital 5 weeks now and there has been no follow up. I feel strongly that the NHS requires a major shake up and instead of closing units and hospitals they should be giving doctors and nurse a decent salary which may tempt others to go in. There is a serious lack of facilities doctors and nursing staff.