"My stay in Kings C1"

I recently had the misfortune to fall and break my left hip in the snow and as a result found myself in A&E where they confirmed by X-Ray the damage and told me I would have a total hip replacement the following day. I was then transferred to Kings C1. After spending my first night there I was taken to theatre the following morning to have the broken hip replaced. I have to say that I found the treatment I received in the operating suite pre and post op very good and the staff were very efficient.

I went back to the ward and initially I was comfortable and in good spirits and ate a small meal. However I was kept awake all night due to noisy patients and buzzers and lights constantly being turned on and off.

The following morning I managed to eat some porridge for breakfast and saw the physios who got me up and moving about but by lunchtime I was beginning to feel nauseous and could not face food. In addition to the various medication that I was on I was also give anti nausea tablets. That night yet again I was unable to sleep due to noise, lights going on and off and a general feeling of being thoroughly depressed.

The next day was a repeat of the previous day, broken up by a visit to X-ray and occupational therapists, but in addition to my nausea I started to itch all over and by late evening was starting to hallucinate. I still was not able to keep any food down. Again I was unable to sleep.

The following morning I was feeling even more depressed and it was only when a doctor saw me later in the day he suggested that I might be having an allergic reaction to the painrelieving drug I had been prescribed and said I should stop taking them.

Due to being with the occupational therapists my dinner was removed before I returned to the ward and my wife mentioned this to the staff who were on that evening and they managed to provide some chips of which I did manage to eat a few. Night-time in the ward was a repeat of the previous nights except that the nursing staff moved me to a side ward in the hope I might get some sleep but this was not to be as I continued to hallucinate until morning and was by then utterly distraught.

After being seen by a doctor later that morning I was judged suitably well enough to be discharged.

I have been in hospital in the past when the nursing staff had time to spend with their patients and offer a little TLC if someone was feeling poorly but my experience this time was nothing like that. I felt that the nurses I saw were going through the motions in a mechanical sort of way, ticking all the boxes on their charts with very little interaction or time for the patient. The analogy of a conveyor belt production line comes to mind.

All in all I would not like to relive my recent experience in hospital again.