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"Brilliant doctors, patchy nurses but great..."

About: University Hospital Lewisham

The SelDoc Gp was amazing - so helpful and compassionate and really listened. They prescribed; gave me three possible diagnoses; then strongly advised me to wait in the actual A and E for bloods as they were worried about accidental liver damage. I wanted to get home, but the GP was so politely insistent I stayed. I did have liver damage. I was treated within 2 hrs in AandE - doc was wonderful. So caring and compassionate and went above and beyond many times. So grateful. But bad luck with nurses began here. Nurse cannulating my arm sneezed all over their equipment and carried on, then scolded me for making a fuss about the pain(!) - they had a few painful attempts at before getting it right.//I was put in small waiting room, but were three loud conversations, from other patient groups on drips, every word painful in my state. I asked a nurse if could I move - 'No, there are no rooms, they're all being used.' Seconds later my doctor arrived and whisked me off to one of the many empty rooms.//I was in CDU for 2 night and days. The 4 doctors I saw were all warm and compassionate - absolutely wonderful. I really wish I could remember their names - I was too ill. //Unfortunately experiences as an inpatient are shaped by nurses, not doctors. I did not receive my meds on time once. They gave me every wrong combination, from giving me pills twice that could have been catastrophic if boyfriend hadn't;t noticed, to forgetting to give any pills at all, to taking an hour to walk the morphine over after I reported 10/10 pain..//One nurse told me my scan was fine. I had not been told the results yet, and little did they know that 'fine' meant it was 'something else' - a very serious, untreatable condition. It turned out later they were wrong, thank god! I was distraught, they were very unsympathetic - walked away from me rolling their eyes. Mv pain was still 10/10, and later they told me, to my devastation, a new doc I hadn't met was cutting my pain meds in half because 'you should never have been on that dose.' I asked why was I on it then, had CDU made a mistake? A farcical conversation ensued where they denied saying 'you should never have been on that dose', then said it again! Then said it didn't mean an error. They wouldn't listen or let me explain. They told me to take ibuprofen - (accidental ibuprofen overdose key part of my liver damage...). They were rude, bullying, talked over me, did not listen and left me sobbing in a corner without morphine which they then 'forgot' to bring me all night. It was finally brought when the next nurse came on shift with apologies.// good news -the auxiliary nurses were all lovely. One comforted me when I cried after 2 incidents. Another person constantly went above and beyond their duties and was so kind, attentive and caring. Reporting my pain relief requests, doing everything to make me comfortable - what a loving, kind, hard working person. They're very lucky to have them.

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Responses

Response from Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust 6 years ago
Submitted on 01/12/2017 at 15:13
Published on Care Opinion at 15:14


Thank you very much for taking the time to le us know about your experience. It is lovely to hear about the staff who you found to be warm caring and efficient, but very disappointing to hear that you found some of the nursing team to be not as warm and caring.

The Emergency Department Matron will discuss with the nursing staff who were involved with your care and your concerns will be used for learning and development. We would like to pass on our apologies to you. We try very hard to ensure all our patients feel cared for and are looked after well and we are very sorry that you did not experience this.

Kind regards

Carol Spanswick
Emergency Department Matron
Lewisham & Greenwich NHS Trust

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