"A visit to the Accident and Emergency..."

I was bought into the A and E department yesterday afternoon by ambulance and from start to finish the care I received was appalling and completely unsatisfactory.

There was no privacy and confidentiality for me or any of the patients. I heard the Nurse in Charge in the assessment bay where I was first taken who was an Agency Nurse ,swearing.i was then placed in a corridor with many other patients waiting for a bay. No-one communicated with me, no one took a full and complete history. It just seemed that they wanted to ensure I wasn’t having a heart attack and then get rid of me. I waited ages to be seen by a doctor and when I asked again what was happening, it was a student nurse who bothered to find out that an error had been put on the board and that is why I was still waiting.The department was filthy, there was someone else’s blood on my trolley, the bay I was taken to was not prepared. The equipment wasn’t cleaned between patients and there was a male urinal bottle filled with urine on the chair with scissors and trousers from the previous patient. I was told by a Sister that they had to quickly get me into this bay otherwise they would lose it.

The toilets were filthy, no one seemed to know what they were doing or care. My cardiac monitor alarmed the whole time I was there, with an error message stating that a lead was disconnected but it stayed like this for 2 hours and no-one bothered to check it. When I was disconnected from it to go to the toilet, no one helped me to the toilet or bothered to reconnect me once I was back., There was no patient care, it was the worse experience I have ever had in a hospital.

The doctor that removed my venflon did not wear gloves or wash his hands and stuck the tape that he used to stick onthe cotton wool onto my arm onto the filthy trolley before putting it on me.

I could not wait to get out of there and hope I never have to go back

It was so dreadful, the worse care I have ever received, I feel so sad and sorry that any patient has to experience this level of care.