Share review of Queen's Hospital

Queen's Hospital 2023-11-01 Person 1 5 0

I was told to attend A&E as a matter of urgency to be seen immediately by drs, I did not wish to go in an ambulance as I had to arrange child care so I got myself to the hospital, they were aware I was arriving and what my symptoms were, I was very unwell and weak but had to stand until called by a dr in the lobby of the hospital where I was then tersely reprimanded for not immediately saying why I was there, the information of my symptoms was already in front of her on her computer, symptoms suggestive of a stroke, which were creating a problem with my ability to speak, eventually I muttered I was struggling to explain at which point she read the screen and instructed a very clearly unwell, confused and weak me to proceed alone down the maze like corridors to A&E where I was met by a scene similar to that witnessed in a third world country, corridors lined with beds, every chair taken, people sat on floors, again I had to struggle through giving my information to a receptionist then vaguely pointed in a direction to wait, if I had been having a stroke the damage by this point would have been done, I doubt being bought in an ambulance would have made any difference other than I would have had somewhere to sit, I was given no clue to time scale of wait but could see it would be long. At one point a nurse came and snatched my notes from my hand to see if I could be moved out of my chair to give to another patient, luckily I was deemed ill enough to remain seated, after two hours of sitting in extreme pain and feeling exceptionally unwell I decided to leave having concluded that I would self diagnose as having had a hemiplegic migraine and get home where I could at least suffer in peace. I approached the desk to inform them to take me from the list, the lady I eventually spoke to was very kind and apologetic but after looking at my notes suggested I speak to a nurse as currently I was 16th in line to merely be triaged, I was ignored for a good ten minutes by the nursing staff (quite understandably) when I eventually I just stopped a dr and told her I just wanted to leave and could she simply remove me from the list, again she was very kind and empathetic and when I told her of the health condition I have she understood my need to get home and get decent pain relief, she suggested she could prescribe me some but it would take some time to reach me, I was grateful but declined, then I had to wait to sign a discharge form which again looked like it would take a great deal of time, the dr very kindly told me to just leave and she would take care of it. The majority of staff I had dealings with were wonderful, kind despite working in horrific conditions, this is my worst experience I’ve ever had in A&E and considering I was once sent home with a huge, bleeding ulcer in my colon it is saying something. It is not the fault of the staff, the fault lays at the feet of the conservative government, I doubt there is anything that can be learnt from my experience because the only thing that could improve the situation is more staff being paid a fair wage and larger facilities as this is not going to happen anytime soon, complaint is a pointless exercise.

The only thing that could be improved immediately without a great deal of money being pumped into the hospital is seating closer to the initial A&E reception in lobby and I would also suggest having a porter on hand to wheel very unwell patients from the lobby through the maze like corridors to the A&E department.