Queen's Hospital 2024-04-25 Person 2 5 0

In the first triad part, the nurse was very good at communicating and caring for my well-being and the process was relatively quick, from entrance to triad, and blood rest, eeg, and ct scan within 2 hours. However I was then made to wait an extra eleven hours after that without any communication about my wait time, no communication about how my tests were, and I was made to feel like an irritance rather than a cared for patient. When I approached the sister yo convey my worries and concerns, I was fobbed off with responses such as “my shift has ended now” and “I’m on my break now” and when I said (after 14 hours) that I was tired, dizzy, hungry and stressed, I was told I could discharge myself “at my own risk” and that all the tests I had done 11 hours previously would be deleted and I would need to come in again and do it all again for 12+ hours. This was not only me, there were other patients in a similar boat, and I left the hospital feeling worse than when I had entered 15 hours ago. In the end I saw a nurse only after she realised I was not well, took 5 minutes and was told all my tests were ok and I could go home.

More and better communication would make the whole process more bearable as maybe I could make a decision earlier on to discharge myself if I knew I would be sitting waiting for a further eleven hours. And would be a good idea to retrain the sister to better deal with sick patients who just want an answer.