"Nursing care"

I was taken from another hospital to Albany hospital for an X-ray and MRI of my hip and back. After waiting a long time for the X-ray and spending nearly an hour being transported to the hospital I needed to use a commode to urinate.

At that stage I couldn’t walk, I felt the nurse told me off and seemed reluctant to get one and help me transfer from the bed to commode. I can understand they were busy and I believe stressed but I ended up in tears.

To the nurse's credit, they later apologised. I was then admitted to Albany hospital where I would have had to wait for 3 or four days for an MRI, after one night I begged to go back to the hospital I came from as soon as a bed was free. This was because the nurses, with one exception, I felt were rude, reluctant to help transfer to the commode, were rough in their handling and uncaring and distant. To the point where I only asked when I was desperate and held on as much as I could.

The upshot was that I eventually became dehydrated and constipated which had to be dealt with when I arrived back at the other hospital. I have never received such horrible treatment like this before and can only think these nurses must be very unhappy in their jobs, which in my opinion, is more than likely a management issue.

I am a health professional myself and was appalled at the service. I will never go back there again! I believe something needs to be done if this is the kind of treatment people receive in that hospital.

The contrast between the nursing staff at the hospital I came from and Albany, in my opinion, was huge. At the other hospital, I had caring, gentle and helpful nurses, I cannot praise them enough. I believe nurses' attitudes make such a difference to a patient's recovery. Based on my experience, I feel something needs to be done about the culture at Albany.