Share review of Salford Royal Hospital

Salford Royal Hospital 2017-06-20 Person 1 5 0

I'm in the process of making a formal complaint about the experience I had which seriously compounded the health problem I went to the A and E unit with. There are too many details which are too many to outline here suffice it to say that I feel I am speaking for the other people who were on the same waiting area as me by formally complaining. We were not treated as human beings but as cattle. Six hours wait is in no way acceptable and to then be treated so badly for speaking up about it was the final straw. I left and could easily have died. I would rather die at home than in such a place with such callous inhuman beings. It was a truly awful experience. I never wish to be admitted to that hospital for anything. I do not believe I would come out alive. My son was with me so it is not just my word. I left and no one cared that I did. Despite the fact I was sent there by 111 as a matter of great concern for my health. Instead of showing concern that I was leaving I was instead accused of queue jumping when that is not what I was doing and the accusation was totally inappropriate. I was also told it was A and E as if I should not even have been there. Like most people there waiting to be seen, I didn't want to be there. I was not there out of choice I was sent there and I was told by triage I needed to wait there to be seen. And yet I was let go home and with the distinct impression that I was not wanted and that I should not even have been there. And yet I asked the question where should I have been instead? No answer to that question. Except that a six plus hour wait was pretty much defecto as it was A and E. the attitude was totally unacceptable. When I was leaving I mentioned how the six hour wait had seriously added to my health conditions and was simply and rather callously told that it was A and E and my mere saying this and asking for me canular to be removed so I could go home was justification to accuse be of trying to queue jump. One nurse spoke to me like this through gritted teeth. It was not my choice to go to A and E. I felt I had to keep apologising for being there and had to keep telling people I had not wanted to go there and that I was told to do so and was then told I should stay both by nurses. There are no words that could adequately describe just how harrowing an experience it was being at Salford royal A and E. I was already in a very distressed state on arrival worried for my life not just health becuase of a severe reaction to prescribed medication taken and the whole experience made that far far worse. From 6pm to around 4 am and then home not even seen. Truly appalling example of the worst of the NHS apathetic and lack of care. I witnessed staff sat and stood around appearing to be doing little of any urgency and I heard one doctor actually say they weren't doing anything. The one who removed my canular and told me I was trying to queue jump. That I was in A and E and that the reason there was a six hour wait wasn't that she was stood around doing nothing but that there were people constantly arriving in ambulances that were more urgent than me. How could any doctor know that before seeing me when I had had a severe reaction to medication and was told by no less than two nurses I needed to be seen by a doctor? As someone in the waiting area collapsed to the floor before being attended to by five medical staff perhaps that is the measure of urgency. As long as I didn't collapse I could continue to wait? Six hours and counting is not acceptable and the apathy that went with it was actually worse. Then the antagonism toward me by some staff for saying anything was the worst. The total opposite to the sign that expressed the ethos of Salford NHS. I took a photo of the sign becuase I felt like I was in the world of George orwell's 1984.