"Problems with my treatment on the ward"

Oh my goodness! Where do I start?

I was taken by Ambulance to A&E at Northampton on an early Sunday evening with a suspected duodenal ulcer bleed. The Ambulance crew were brilliant, caring and compassionate, as well as very professional. Because I was in severe pain they gave me entonox (gas and air) and it helped me greatly but made me mouth and throat very dry and I was very thirsty. Once I was in A&E I was wheeled to a cubical fairly quickly and saw a nice lady Doctor to whom I explained I had not got my medication (or even my handbag) with me, so I gave her a list of my meds which she noted, and assured me these would be made available on the ward, including my sleep medication (which I have been taking for 2 years now).

I asked a nurse for a drink of water and she gave me a cup of warm tap water which smelt of chlorine and made me vomit blood again. So I asked the nurse if I could have a cup from the water cooler and she told me there was none. This is my first complaint. Why? in the name of everything that is good, would an A&E department at a large hospital have no water cooler for patients? She told me it had been vandalised and removed. But I think this is a money saving effort, leaving patients and family with no other option but to buy bottled water from the vending machine at vastly inflated prices!

Next I was told I was going onto the adaptive cognitive impairment unit, otherwise known as Collingtree Ward. I was not warned that this  ward was  mostly a dementia, and addictive substance, mental health ward. I think this was blatant discrimination because I had a bi polar episode 14 years ago. The result is I got no sleep for all the screaming and shouting at night, and dementia sufferers are left wandering and confused with no help. (I swear if I am ever told in future that I will be going to Collingtree Ward I will DISCHARGE myself! ).

Anyway on the first evening the night staff did not introduce themselves and barely spoke to me, simply giving me my medication in the paper cup and I did not get a wink of sleep. On the second night I found out I was only being given HALF of my prescribed sleep medication and I asked to know why. The nurse just shrugged and said she had no idea. I asked if I could please see the night duty Doctor to prescribe me with my proper dose and she said a flat No!  I asked at the nurses station too only to overhear me being described as a nuisance.

 I have had several stays at this hospital and have never known rudeness like that. I was shocked and upset, but eventually a Doctor was called, prescribed me my proper dose and even apologised for the mix up, and assured me the next night my medication would be correct. However to my horror it was not and the same thing happened with the same night staff and one nurse said to other staff she was not putting up with me again that night. This was said in front of me, at which I burst into tears! Again the Doctor was called to prescribe again. Then the third night my medication was correct but those nurses let me know they were not happy with me, simply for wanting my correct medication.

The day staff were not really much better. After I had my endoscopy I was thirsty and got out of bed to get some water from the kitchen cooler only to be told that he water cooler is for staff only and out of bounds to patients!  I was bewildered and felt like I had stumbled into the 9th pit of hell!

I was diagnosed with 2 extra duodenal ulcers and a hernia and I could not eat acidic food, for which I received no help. It was left to my husband to bring me in some sandwiches and cold drinks which he labeled and asked the nurse to put them in the fridge. But when I asked a nurse for them I was ignored, so I got out of bed and got them myself, and no one seemed to care. But the following evening the kitchen was locked. I believe this was on purpose, I was left starving!

Also I found the way some staff spoke to me and other patients it was sickeningly patronising, calling ill ladies "My lovely! " Perhaps its the true nature of this ward (cognitive impairment) which is why the nurses do this. But I felt like saying "I am not your lovely. I am your patient! " but I didn't.

Anyway, after six days I was seen by a Doctor who said she was "thinking" about discharging me. I was very relived but worried as I still had a lot of hernia pain, but I got the feeling I was wasting my breath and packed my bags, painfully. I pulled the curtains around me to get changed and another nurse breezes in, throws open my curtains and shouted that I was being discharged now and that the he porter was on his way to take me to the discharge area! However, to my horror I discovered 3 hospital security guards standing not 10 feet from my bed (my bed was next to the corridor) But why? Why did the nurses feel they had to call security me? I was baffled.

Collingtree being the kind of ward it is, you get to see security frequently, but at that point no one was misbehaving, screaming or yelling (except the nurse that discharged me! ) and it was a very calm early afternoon. So I still don't know why? ....I am still in a high degree of pain but I felt I had to write this. I think patients need to be told what Collingtree ward really is, and why they are being sent there. Certain staff need to show better compassion and care. Provisions need to be made for emergency inpatients who do not have their prescription or medication with them, without being made to feel like a liar! I think water coolers for PATIENTS need to be made available on every ward. Because giving patients luke warm tap water reeking of chlorine is just going to make them sick! I think patients would recover far faster if given cups of cold fresh, clean water, and water is the basic of human rights!

Finally I know from past experience at NGH that on most wards the staff are excellent, caring, and very professional. And on this occasion my Ambulance team were superb and the staff were fantastic on the endoscopy suite, so why was my experience on the ward so different?