"BED CRISIS"

I was admitted to Lincoln county Hospital yesterday and after an assessment and then sitting mostly on a hard plastic chair in a side room, until I asked for a more comfortable one.

for approximately 12 hours overnight whilst they tried to find me a bed . I apparently need an MRI scan and was told and could not go home and return in the morning even though I live 5 minutes away from the hospital and all my signs and bloods had returned to normal. It was explained that if I went home it would be considered that I had discharged myself. Eventually a bed was found for me which I occupied until a doctor visited me very briefly later in the morning saying he could not consult with me until we received the results of my MRI scan that I would be having later today.

Following this I continued to occupy this valuable bed and waited patiently. Communication throughout the day had been zero, I was not kept informed and I continued to occupy a desperately needed bed. My partner arrived and asked the duty doctor what might be happening who said that he would come and see me when he could. By 3 pm he had not been able to see me and so I went to see him myself at the nurses station. He said he would chase up my scan and come to see me. Eventually he did this and brought a form with him which he said I needed to complete before I could even go into the queuing system for the scan. Why wasn’t I asked to complete this form this morning?

I’m still on the ward occupying a bed and resources that I’m sure could be put to much better use than my body being in it??? LCC you need to manage your bed occupancy better and then maybe you would not receive quite so many problems and complaints. In my case communication with me and inter department has broken down at the expense of a valuable bed and secondly unnecessary stress and anxiety caused to myself along now with a cystitis attack. Nobody wants to make a complaint whilst they are undergoing treatment, and I think most people, as I do, respect and understand the pressures that our doctors and nurses are under. I remain on the ward and understand that because this piece of paper was not communicated to me and filled in that I will not now be having the MRI scan today and I shall be occupying a bed for a further night and day. I feed this back so that LCC might look into this and prevent another similar recurrence for another patient. Helen Bell