"The doctor told my husband he shouldn't be at hospital"

My husband has been suffering from artial fibrillation for over 10 years. He has undergone three more or less successful ablation procedures and has been on waiting list with one of the hospitals in London for the fourth procedure due to having episodes of AF roughly every two months where he needs to be admitted to A&E department for electric cardioversion to bring his fast and irregular heart rhythm back to normal.

Over past two years he’s been admitted to L&D hospital on 5 occasions however over past 10 years he attended hospitals in the UK and abroad on many occasions seeking medical attention due to having irregular heartbeat, feeling dizzy and having heaviness in his chest.

He’s experience with L&D hospital was always very positive until yesterday when he was admitted to Ward 4 which is assessment ward in the hospital. He was moved there from A&E department and was supposed to be seen by cardiologist. Unfortunately he was seen by a doctor who behaved in a very arrogant and patronising towards us,  I felt like he did not want to hear that my husband’s been suffering from the condition for many years saying that this is the most common heart condition and 10% of population suffers from this therefore there is no need of regulating my husband heart rhythm as he can live with it. He said that they managed to reduce the pace of his heart and this is enough to discharge him from the hospital. When we tried to explain that he still feels discomfort due to his hart still beating at abnormal rate and that he’s been advised by cardiologist to seek medical attention each time he has episode of AF and make sure he stays in the hospital until his heart rate is regulated, this doctor told him that he shouldn’t attending hospital, indicating that my husband just waste their time as the only thing they can do is just to monitor his heart rate and when my husband agrees to electric cardiovesion he gives his heart mini heart attack and having cardioversion over years can cause heart failure.

He also referred us to Wikipedia as a great source of information about AF. He could not confirm if it’s safe for my husband to go back to work or the gym with his heart still beating irregularly. My husband was discharged from the hospital after spending there 15 hours, still with irregular heart rate. When he woke up this morning he still felt unwell therefore we decided to seek help in a hospital in London (1. 5 hours drive from our home) He was not dismissed there, received help and returned home with regular heart rate. Just to add nursing staff at Ward 4 – assessment ward were very helpful and caring, doing everything they could to make my husband’s stay at the ward to be pleasant experience.