Because of the nature of the surgery I was unable to speak as the inside of my mouth was full of stitches and my face was so swollen, so I was also unable to eat, food would be left on my bedside table and taken away untouched an hour later.
I was left attached to an empty IV for a day.
I wasn't given the option of a bath or shower.
My partner at the time left when I got diagnosed and I have no close family so no hospital visitors and no-one to stick up for me.
After I recovered I should have complained but I was so traumatised I just wanted to forget the whole awful experience .
It certainly changed my view of NHS staff though.
Oh. The perfect patient then!
I think people who have left nursing in the last 15 years or so wouldn't recognise how it's changed and not for the better from a patient's perspective.
The staff attitudes have developed from their training (from what I hear these days from friends still working). They now have it drummed into them that they don't need to take crap off stroppy patients and that they have the most important job in the world kind of things. In essence, they're believing their own press.
There are a LOT of caring nurses that will go above and beyond but you only need a few staff in a ward that take the 'it's not my job/I'm more important than you' attitude and the rot sets in. I've been told off for going to fetch some water for an elderly resident who'd been transferred to ward after waiting in A&E for 17 hours. He'd not been given anything to drink in case an op was needed but they decided just to keep him in a few days. He was thirsty and in pain but despite requesting water from staff after arriving in the ward 2 hours earlier, he'd not been given anything. In the 3 hours we were there, all staff disappeared into their break room for tea together TWICE. When I knocked the door (again) to ask for water I was told sharply that they were having an important meeting (with lots of loud laughter - wish I'd had meetings like that!) and they'd see to us when finished. They didn't. Other patients on the ward told us not to bother that it was always like that and they'd all decided to complain.
I've also been on a ward where there is genuine care displayed - but they'll still take their breaks together and patients (even very distressed ones) have to wait. This would NEVER have been allowed when I was working.
I'm so sorry you went through that, Susie. No one should ever be treated like that and you should have complained but I completely understand why you didn't. I'm exhausted trying to speak up for myself but am ignored and considered a nuisance by my surgery. I do believe that it stems from the doctors ignoring my symptoms for over a decade because no one bothered to look back in my notes to see I'd had a diagnosis but was written off as 'hysterical' and 'depressed' by numerous locums before paying to get seen privately.
Have you ever walked through a group of people that go quiet when you walk past? That's how it was going into my surgery after my (second) diagnosis. One nurse asked me how it felt now that I knew I actually had something wrong with me. I told her I felt the same as when I'd had the original diagnosis years ago but at least now I would be treated for it and not dismissed like a petulant child. The way she coloured and went quiet told me all I needed about my case being discussed.
The thing is, we shouldn't have to complain. The NHS, no matter how strapped, is a service for patients, ultimately paid for by patients. But things will never get better if we don't. If anyone has ever had treatment in a private hospital and an NHS hospital, you'll have seen the difference. There shouldn't be one. However, I'm now hearing complaints from people who have been shunted over to a private hospital due to the NHS not being able to cope and the NHS patients have a different service to the paying patients - despite the NHS paying for that private treatment.
When I went into the NHS I wanted to help people. My pay was *****, I knew that before I started and took a massive pay drop from my previous job (I was lucky and settled financially and just wanted a job I loved). The pay these days is much better, despite what the press says. Compared to other jobs (pre-Covid), pay and conditions were much better than many other jobs. The pay increases with your grade and experience so it can be what you want to make of it. Some people scrape by with poor working conditions on minimum wage all their lives. It all boils down to whether a tax-payer is happy to fund a pay increase or not. Those who have had a good experience will undoubtedly say yes, those who haven't won't.
But there should not be this difference to start with. And everyone working within the NHS should stop and think before wasting resources. This starts at the top and should be stopped but won't be because a lot of people will just enjoy the pay and 'perks' of their job without thinking down the chain. The government (and tax-payers) are going to have to suck it up until the worst of this situation is over but after that, the whole of the NHS needs a real shake-up for the sake of the tax-payer and the patients.
