"Our experience in Emergency"

After spending 7 hours one night in Emergency with severe upper abdominal pain to be discharged with an appointment time for a ultrasound the following day, my husband was sent back to emergency, with a letter of instruction to the emergency doctors, for further tests that we were told could only be done by the Emergency Department (and should have been done the first time round).  When he arrived and gave his letter to the triage nurse he was told he would be seen to as soon as possible. 

After waiting for 7 hours again we calmly approached the triage desk to nicely ask them whether we were wasting our time waiting around. We had come back in under the order of a doctor but after watching the entire waiting room clear out, and one of the nurses rolling her eyes at my husband, and another saying, what we felt was sarcastically - oh was just checking if you were still here - we started to feel like maybe the hospital staff didn't think we should be there.  We were happy to go home and not waste anyone's time any further, as we were only doing what we'd been told we needed to do.  We felt the nurse we spoke to was incredibly rude and and also felt they straight away started abusing us saying things like - well your bloods are clear - seemingly in an incredibly aggressive tone. I then asked, Should he go home then? He isn't here to waste anyone's time, the doctor told him to be here.  I can't tell you that, she screamed at me.

I completely understand that the hospital staff quite often have to deal with a lot of difficult and unreasonable people, and I absolutely feel for them - hence why I was being as polite as possible even after spending two full nights there for what seemed to be a pointless cause. But no one would tell us it was a pointless cause.  

So in our opinion, we copped a bit more abuse from the seemingly aggressive nurse before another nurse butted in and was far more reasonable and offered him some pain relief while he waited (the first time he had been offered that night!). 

We ended up waiting another 6 hours before he was seen, released and the doctors again didn't do the tests that the GP requested them to do.

We are still trying to find out exactly what is wrong with my husband, he's been sent away with possible liver issues and been given heavy medication to mask the pain.... seems a bit counterproductive doesn't it?  In my opinion - let's smash his weak liver with drugs - great plan!

Our experience was a really horrible experience.