"My upsetting experience in the Scoping Unit"

Recently I had to have a combined Gastroscopy and Colonoscopy at my local hospital. All my previous visits to Gastroenterology and pre admission appointment had gone well and the staff I met were kind and helpful.

However when my day in the treatment room of the scoping unit came around this already petrified patient was met with an indifferent staff who seemed amazed as to why I was so nervous and the doctor completely ignoring me sitting at a desk on the phone with his back to me and didn't come over to me until the nurses had me ready and he was going to start. The very least this doctor could have done was to have turned around and said hello as I entered the room (he was not my consultant as mine had transferred me to this one) as he didn't I felt like I was just another body on the conveyor belt.

I was to have sedation, painkiller and throat spray. I got all the meds in one go and the throat spray consisted of 2 careless sprays on my tongue that did nothing to numb my throat. Consequently I woke during the procedure to find the scope tubing digging into the left side of my throat making me gag - the very thing I dreaded.

I was awake for all of the colonoscopy and found myself in excruciating pain (one of the nurses even held me down) and no communication from the staff except to "concentrate on your breathing" - very helpful I don't think. No one talked to me through the procedure or explained anything except say 'that'a pocket' and 6mm polyp.

But when the doctor came to take the poly out it was lost and so I have to have another procedure and polypectomy later on in the year. That's if I have the courage to go back.

I was told proudly by a scoping unit staff member that they perform 60 procedures a day. Well looks like getting that amount in has resulted in patients being hurried through with no compassion, care or consideration. A few kind words during these traumatic procedures might have made a big difference to my ordeal and I might have looked upon this hospital in a better light.

I have a feeling it is hoped patients will, due to the sedatives, not remember the pain they have been through. Please all medical staff remember we the patients are human being and not a piece of meat on a trolley.