It was around 9 o'clock when I finally decided to go to the hospital for help. I had spoken to nurse on call and then a doctor had phoned me and both of them said I need to go to the hospital.
When I got there I was seen by a nurse who was kind, considerate, and took the time to do her job properly. She had a waiting room of people that she continued to check on and attend to with various medications and so on. The time neared when it was time for her to go home so she took upon herself to talk to the people in the waiting room and explain her shift was over and that a new nurse would be clocking on with a doctor change also.
I continued to wait in the waiting room with severe pain in my abdomen, my back and in the legs. I had been vomiting, belching and just felt terrible. The hours progressed and I ended going outside to lay on a chair, as I suffer with chronic back pain. Also it is hard to stay in one spot. I finally came back in and waited. There was an ambulance that had turned up and at this stage there was only two people waiting, which was another person and myself. I understand fully that there is a patient priority and some people are worse than others, so I continued to wait. The other person in the waiting room was called through and about one hour later a person walked in with a young child who got taken straight through to a bed. I totally understand that the child must of been in a bad way that needed urgent attention. So I continued waiting.
By this stage another person came in who was taken straight to a bed; they were obviously a worse case then myself, so I continued to wait, getting agitated and more stressed and uncomfortable. I finally managed to do a urine sample that I’d been asked to do when I first came in so I gave it to a nurse that was doing something behind the counter and went back to continue my waiting.
About four hours into my wait at the hospital, my daughter-in-law left the hospital to go grab something and I continued to wait with my son. A little while later she returned but couldn't get back in so my son went to let her in. Just as he was doing so one of the nurses said, don’t you open that door. My son replied with, oh it’s my partner, but the nurse replied with, so you can’t just open the door. This however confused us as we had all been waiting together for a very long time and couldn't understand what the problem was. I do understand that the nurses have a duty of care however I couldn't understand their actions. My son took offence to this and replied with, is there anything you’re going to do, as we have been waiting for over four hours? The nurse then proceeded to say there are other critical patients that are important. Now this I totally understand, but the lack of communication to me or care given was a shock. Not once was I checked on, not once was I asked if I was doing okay, which made me feel unimportant. I understand that they may have been busy but if you can’t cater for all patients then something is totally wrong. I did not like the manner of the second nurse that had clocked on in replacement of the first nurse. It seems to me they looked extremely grumpy and treated me like I didn’t exist.
I chose to leave because I was so upset, drained, tired, extremely sore and passing back and forth all to receive nothing; not even a little bit of communication just to let me know about how much longer the wait would be or to see if I was okay.
"Visiting the A&E"
About: Sale Hospital / Emergency Department Sale Hospital Emergency Department Sale 3850
Posted by watertk38 (as ),
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