"My experience three years ago having surgery for peritonitis"

At the age of 53 I was admitted to hospital with stomach pains and was diagnosed with appendicitis.I was operated on within a matter of hours, however by that time the appendix had burst. My care during diagnosis and the operation I would say was excellent.

However when I got back to the ward I was left on my own. I was too weak to get up but no one came to see me or to explain that there was a buzzer by my bed to call for assistance. I was supposed to have regular antibiotics because the appendix had burst but after one dose no more arrived. When my sister asked where they were the nurse shouted at her. Everybody says that nurses are overworked but I could hear some of them outside my room having chats at the nursing station.

The next day the doctor came to see me and said I could go home. When I said that I hadn't eaten for three days and felt too weak to stand up he looked slightly taken aback and said - Go home when you're ready. That night I was moved to another ward and was told that I could start eating again. When the breakfast trolley came round they refused to give me any food because I wasn't on the list. I had to beg them to give me something and eventually they found a piece of bread and butter.

I went home that afternoon and have never been so glad to get home. I felt the nurses that treated me did not give the impression they wanted to nurse patients.. There appeared to be no sense of checking in on patients or asking if there was anything they could do. They just came round to do the basic doling out medicine and taking blood pressure etc.

As an active healthy woman in my early 50s it was a very traumatic experience.

Three weeks later I was readmitted with what was probably a reaction to the antibiotics and was in for a week. I was in another ward where the care was excellent. The nurses who treated me on this occasion were very kind and helpful and nothing was too much trouble.