"The overall experience was poor"

First of all, I do feel the need to say that the staff were all great, everyone was very friendly and went far above and beyond expectations.

However the overall experience of the hospital itself was poor to say the least. I was left on the floor in pain for around 2 hours before being seen by the doctor/specialist so I would be allowed pain relief, everyone was simply too busy, a few staff came over and apologised, but said there was nothing they could do. I lost time at this stage, but it must have been at least an hour after this before a bed was available. Due to the nature of my illness I was unable to sit or stand, so in this time I remained laid on the floor of the cubicle in A&E for at least 3-4 hours.

I arrived at the hospital around 7pm, it was around 3am before I was taken to a ward. Over the course of the stay the ward itself was incredibly hot as there was no air con and was told infection control banned the use of desk fans so there was no air circulation or cooling of any kind.

The one visit by the doctor whilst on the ward was rushed and I had little time to ask questions so I still don't understand as much as I would like to about what happened to me and what happens next. 

One set of blood tests that I had taken were lost and had to be retaken. Then once these bloods were retaken the nurse had to chase multiple times to get the results. I am still not entirely sure, but I also believe I was held in the ward for a day longer than necessary due to missing or delayed blood tests and the doctor not having time to assess the results.

On discharge the doctor told me I should expect re-occurrences of the same excruciating pain, said I would be prescribed Diclofenac  suppositories for instant pain relief and Oramorph for lasting pain relief. However when the nurse bought my prescription over there was no Oramorph listed and she said she couldn’t prescribe it (for a reason I do not recall). The hospital had no stock of the Diclofenac so I was given a prescription slip to take to the chemists. Therefore I had no effective pain relief when leaving the hospital. By the time I left the hospital it was some time after 3pm on a Sunday of a Bank Holiday weekend, further still the Diclofenac was out of stock at the first pharmacy and I very nearly missed the closing time of the second we visited that did have stock.

I was and still am extremely anxious of this unbearable pain returning and not having the appropriate pain relief to relieve it.

Overall the more I write the more I am remembering the various failures during my relatively short 3 night visit.