"Negligent Care"

I recently attended your emergency room in the early hours of the evening on a weekend for excruciating stomach pain.

When I made it to the entrance I was greeted by a security guard who asked me to stop there and that a nurse would come take my temperature etc. for COVID purposes. My relative came with me to the emergency as they were the one to take me. We stood there waiting for a while with no nurse attending to us before the security came back to us and proceeded to take it and allow us to go to triage. 

I sat at triage in agonising pain while the nurse and staff that take your medical information seemed to have a lovely chat about it their weekend plans. This conversation went on for some time while I sat there. 

I believe both noticed I was there however I felt continued to ignore my needs.

I’m an extremely patient person but this was starting to feel very disappointing. 

The nurse and other staff members then chatted while looking over the computer and still no one bothered to communicate with me. 

The nurse then started doing other chores around emergency like grab out a storage box, go get a whiteboard out. 

I kept looking back to my relative to ask if I was being unreasonable? I even so much as reasoned with their behaviour and was curious if they realised I was in to see a doctor or just a visitor.

The staff who takes your details down finally approached me, I said I needed to see someone and they said they would get a nurse.

The nurse continued, I felt, to ignore me.

I stood up when the nurse came back and repeatedly said Hello? Hello? 

In my opinion, they kept ignoring me. 

I asked is someone going to see me? The nurse said they had a code yellow. As if I’m supposed to know what that code means? The nurse didn’t even explain it in layman’s terms.

With that being said, even if there was some sort of emergency, in my opinion, they didn’t look to be fretting and they seemed to stroll around picking up pieces of paper. 

I responded and said so does that mean if there’s one emergency another one doesn’t get attended to? What if I’m having an emergency? The nurse replied by asking well are you having an emergency?

I said I’m in the emergency room aren’t I? I was in such shock and disbelief that this could be happening. I then asked what their name was. They ignored me again. 

I asked again and they told me. I told the nurse that I would be taking this further for what I feel was negligent care.

I’m disgusted, disappointed and heartbroken. The hospital left me feeling unsafe, uncomfortable and alone. Feeling as though there was no other option I went to the next closest hospital.

My experience has left me feeling saddened and disappointed with the care from this hospital.