Worst behaviour you’ve encountered in hospital ward

[Ithinkthatsenough]

I am probably being U and touchy in posting this as ive just spent the day in hospital having a late d&c...
on ward with 2 other ladies who were chatty, was fine and bearable this morning, after 1/2 hohri knew all about their admissions and problems, children’s schooling, then had to put my headphones in when they started on bowel movements.
I was having an op, cleary due to care, questions asked, they could hear eveyrthinf tooand quite a distressing one

Our new £850m hospital has all single rooms - bliss, although I have yet to experience them as a patient only as a visitor

Single rooms work very well for some kind of illnesses and patients and not for others

When my 6 day old daughter stopped breathing on the postnatal ward it took me 10 minutes to find a member of staff (it was change over and they were all in the office that was hidden from view). I ended up screaming in the hallway trying to get someone to help me.

The staff then couldn’t find the key to the resus drugs cabinet, there wasn’t a stethoscope on the resus bed and no one could remember the crash bleep number. Oddly enough the nurse who tried to reassure me that “We’ve never had to do this before” got a mouthful of abuse. I did apologise later.

It took a student nurse running through the linked corridor into the SCBU to get some help for anyone to actually help my daughter.

I was in bed 5e and the nursing staff tried to call the husband for bed 5a to tell him his baby was being resuscitated. It was only when they called me by the wrong name that I realised what was going on.

One of the other mums on the ward came over to see what was going on and dragged me into one of the side rooms where she physically washed my face, got me dressed, brushed my hair and talked complete nonsense at me for the 45mins it took for the staff to transfer my daughter to special care. None of the nursing staff got anywhere near me as she was very insistent that they did their job and she’d do hers. I’d been really intimidated by her before all this happened but she was amazing.

When we had the debrief a few months later it turned out that the student nurse who had run for help had issued a huge compliance compliant via her university as the ward was a lawsuit waiting to happen

When I went back there the next year to have my youngest daughter everyone knew who I was and I was treated like royalty. That pissed me off even more as that was the standard of care everyone should have had, not just the Mum of the baby who died.

Being forced by a nurse to stand on the scales while she called another patient over to read my weight out loud. I was very overweight and she did this to humiliate me. This was many years ago and I was post-op so not thinking very straight else I would have made a formal complaint.

maitland girl

Would be from the staff who refused every single request after ds was born. We were totally ignored as I had requested a transfer to a different hospital. Our child was refused any checks and we were even refused a pen to sign a release form dh was threatened with security for taking one. When we were eventually transferred the new nursing staff were so shocked they helped us with our complaint.

Some of these are awful

I recently had to have a day procedure and while my experience doesn’t compare to some on here, a few things shocked me.

It was a female bay but males who were accompanying patients were given free access.

All personal details: full name, address were taken including questions about last period and pregnancy with only a curtain for privacy. Then a full medical history. It wasn’t done quietly, I could hear my ward neighbours details and so I’m sure they could hear mine too. We wouldn’t have a dr appt in front of the whole waiting room, why is a hospital fair game for complete breaches of privacy?

Much high jinks from the nurses and loud jokes about being ‘beaten up’ by their girlfriends/ boyfriends.

After the op, I woke up completely panicked and distressed. After a short time in recovery, I was wheeled up to the ward and expected to recouperate in a noisy ward where each bed had between 1-2 visitors of mixed sexes. TVs were on too. How are vulnerable people recovering from anaesthetic meant to feel safe?

I couldn’t relax and ended up leaving before I felt well. Although they were trying to be kind, the nurses found it endearing that I wanted to get home, oblivious to how stressful the ward was.

Is this typical? Is it me, am I expecting too much?

Bloody hell maitlandgirl .

Where to start?
Dc1 we knew from my 20 week scan had back problems. Because of this and because of a genetic defect I carry we were incredibly high risk. Went to hospital in full blown labour and some stupid bloody nurse actually asked me “here for a scan?” As I screamed through a contraction. She got my hospital notes thrown at her.
I didn’t see my consultant once during or after that labour as contrary to my notes the hospital had decided to make me give birth on the mlu.
Got called a neurotic mess and told I was a mental first time mum by a nurse who refused to get my son the X-ray he needed (took 8 weeks of daily fighting to get it and sure enough the problem is there!)
Shoved on a ward with 4 other mums.
One snored loudly all night, other one spoke loudly in punjabi to her family all night, one cried loudly all night. Another woman came in at 3am so the nurses put the lights on and drew back all the curtains so we could “meet” her and her husband (not fun whilst trying to breastfeed!)
Ds2 I pretty much refused all nhs care and got told I was a silly little girl for feeling let down after dc1 birth.
Went to the hospital and told them I’m a wuick labourer and got told “no one is that quick” had him less than 30 mins later so no water birth.
Had PTSD and serious pnd with my first so requested a private room with number 2. Got shoved on a normal ward with a woman constantly saying “who’s a cross little boy?” To her screaming newborn and then kept refusing to feed the poor thing.
Eventually got a private room (my son had a concerning amount of blood in his stool) and kept getting ignored when I told them it was because he arrived so quickly, he was in shock and landed in a pool of blood with an open mouth. They kept saying “it wasn’t that bloody in there” even as myself and dh insisted that I managed to get blood on the wall opposite the bed.
Went in for ds2 - bronchiolitis. Was pumping his milk and produced loads. He was given another mother’s milk because “girls milk is in closest fridge to this room.”

Sorry Op here... didnt realise this posted last night as i hadn’t finished posting
Some of these experiences are awful... im so sorry
Anyway the rest of my experience was returning from surgery to full blown talking/shouting from one end of the room to the other by said (pregnant) women and husband, kids, mobiles going off, more talk about poo, loud laughing. All in an epu unit where you can hear everything, i overheard two women that morning be told there was no hope for their babies whilst i was waiting for my op Maybe the problem is with thr epu unit rather than inconsiderate patients...
i was ready to explode, tired and upset but thankfully they buggered off for scans then had some peace to recover. Just a bit that other women in early pregnancy could be so inconsiderate to someone in my situation really...
Anyway, i realise i was probaby a bit touchy so thank you to anyone who sent i feel better today, at home and away from everyone! X

Not quite a ward but....
18 months ago, I was a patient on a day stay unit having keyhole surgery on my knee. I was taken down to the anesthetic area, where the anesthetist then proceeded to bollock the person who'd brought me down too early (apparently she'd wanted to do her assessment in the original area where I was.)

She then left the area, and I spoke to the nurse who was wiring me up to machines, drips etc that while I wasn't going to take this further, I was unhappy with this exchange. I explained I worked for the NHS too (nurse) and felt this was totally unprofessional to row in front of a patient. He agreed-he gave me the impression the doctor had form for this.

The care I received in my first labour (in the hospital's main maternity unit) couldn't have been better. For my second child, I was moved down to the midwife-led maternity unit and it wasn't great. I was left alone with an overflowing catheter and had to empty the bag down the sink.

DS2 was making "huh huh" noises as he breathed. A night-shift nurse joked that he was having a little singalong. The morning nurse realised he was actually "grunting" and rushed him up to SCBU. I had to wait downstairs on my own for ages while they found me a wheelchair.

After that though, back in the main maternity unit, everything was great and the care we both received was spectacular. Just the one night was weird.

When I was admitted with pre-eclampsia before my last child was born, a midwife was looking through my handheld notes and chatting. Across the top of my notes and in all the birth history was written "HISTORY OF STILLBIRTH", but that didn't stop her from chattering on about how my one daughter must be really spoilt with all those brothers.
I just managed to say something like "not really, she's dead" and the whole room went silent. Everyone was staring at me and there was just nowhere to hide.
I know the midwife wasn't trying to upset me, but I was already frightened and isolated and she really, really didn't help.

Mixed emergency medical assessment ward. Meant to be single-sex bays, but I was in a bay of three men opposite three women.

1. Woman next to me is given an enema and a commode, curtains are closed on her and she's left to it. We hear everything. Not a scrap of dignity. Poor woman.

1. Man opposite me and to the right takes a shine to me. Tells me so, in quite some detail. I'm terrified despite his leg in plaster, and barely sleep.

1. Man opposite and to the left crashes horribly. Full team works on him for maybe 15-20 minutes but too late. Nobody available to dress or move the body for hours.

1. At the time my eldest was still ebf - DH had had to do a mercy dash into the 24h supermarket for ready-made ff but meanwhile I was having to pump every few hours for comfort, and as the milk had a noticeably blue tint to it the medics were panicking and asking for samples for testing*. At one point I'm using a hand pump behind my curtains, and a nurse outside loudly calls "what's going on in here then?" and wrenches the curtains open in full view of the entire bay (including perv from point 2). In fairness I don't know which of the two of us was more horrified and mortified, but I know I cried.

• turns out my milk is just kind of blue, paler than in The Last Jedi mind you.

I've had only excellent care from the NHS before and since, but those 24-36 hours were absolute hell.

When i was induced with my firstborn the mw refused to examine me as it wasnt scheduled for another 3 hrs and she didnt believe i was in labour, told me that any pain i was feeling was going to get much worse , 15min later she finally examined me whilst complaining it wasnt due yet and was surprised i was 8cm , she then wouldnt phone my husband to come for the delivery. After he was born the mw that delivered was amazing the one that was taking over the shift was horrible , she kept putting the stitches in then taking them back out complaining it was awkward because i hadnt torn in a straight line .

With my second i was put in a recovery room after bleeding heavily and being out of it with my new dd in cot beside me, a youngish girl was admitted that night , she was with her mum and boyfriend talking really loudly and they opened the curtains seperating us asking really personal questions and staring at my dd whilst saying really loudly god you should see the size of this baby , come see ect the mw was amazing she walked in asked the family what the hell they thought they were doing that the curtain was closed for a reason , i was poorly not related to them and they should have consideration for others and she didnt care if they only looked because they heard a baby , they wouldnt want someone to do it to them so they dont do it to others

Sorry that was longer than expected

DS had to have heart surgery. He was a teen on a ward full of babies. The mother who's baby was next to us didn't approve of us closing the curtains between the beds and loudly bitched about it. DH and I went to get a sandwich and when we came back she'd opened the curtains and DS was too upset to say anything. I wanted to slap her stupid, but DH firmly closed the curtains. She started bitching about people being rude to her mother and DH stuck his head around and said 'These curtains stay closed, please.' She huffed and flounced down the ward. I was so angry. Partly because she was such a cow, but mostly because of the stress we were all under. DS had his surgery the next day and thankfully she stayed out of our way.

Diagnosed with late stage cancer and was admitted to hospital as I was in a lot of pain, couldn’t pee and needed urgent surgery. I wasn’t getting much sleep and the nurse came in at 8 or so and asked me really sarcastically if I’d just decided to have a lie in. I think I cried, I felt so judged.

After surgery I was getting moved from HDU to the ward, the nurse wanted to keep the bed I was in so tried to get me transferred across. However I’d just had bloody liver surgery and had drains and a morphine pump. My drain got caught in the bed and I pointed this out to her, but she just kept pushing me over. This makes me really angry to think about as I should have spoken up for myself more.

I have been in hopital lots over the last 20ish years from being a teenager I have far too many to tell really.

One was being in agony one night and on morphine when the woman next to me decided to eat a family sized bag of crisps at about 1am. She was there for taking too much heroin but it didn’t seem to affect her appetite.
When I was about 17 (moved to adults hospital by then) I was left for hours in a ward with one other old lady who had died. I had been talking to her that afternoon. I just felt really tramutised and couldn’t sleep as sorry as I felt for her and her family it was just too much.
Another time there was a woman in my ward constantly on the phone during the night complaining because her son had been sent to prison for 15 year (must have done something serious) she discharged herself because she couldn’t cope with the stress so we all got a good nights sleep.
During another sleepless night a nurse and porter were talking very loudly in the ward about how she wanted another job but wasn’t willing to move to another ward because she didn’t want to deal with people with bags of shit stuck to them (her words ! In referring to colostomy bags) she thought it was absolutely disgusting ! How professional and caring eh.
I can’t count the number of people I have been stuck with under police guard or the amount of fights I have witnessed. Safe to say everytime the doctor tells me I’m going back I have a little cry

ever after

This wasn't a hospital ward but happened at my GP surgery. I was booked in for a smear test and I was put under great pressure by my family to have one. The first one came back inconclusive and I was bullied into having a second one by said family.

I spoke to the practice nurse about getting some sort of sedative and she said "Oh no, we don't do things like that here". On the day, I kind of seized up and just couldn't relax so the nurse got the senior nurse who said I couldn't have a sedative and she was very rough and I was crying as it was bringing back memories from a sexual assault in my younger days.

This year I'm due a smear test and I'm determined that I won't be bullied into doing anything I'm not comfortable with.

Apologies for essay.

Sorry to hear what you went through hunterofstars it sounds awful. I had a similar experience due to pain (from another condition) in the end I had the smear at the hospital and it was much better. Maybe you could suggest that ? Unfortunately not everyone is the same I know nobody enjoys the experience but for some people it is more difficult for many reasons
It actually amazes me how many people go in to the profession without compassion.
I had a similar experience at a colonoscopy appointment. The nurse was adamant that I didn't need a sedative and that I was making a huge fuss about the pain. Turned out I had a huge abscess in my bowel and I was rushed in there and then for emergency surgery. Unfortunately I was so angry with the nurse I shouted at her. The consultant apologised for her but it wasn't his fault.

Oh and another one went to hospital to have my last child (the only one that wasnt induced) was almost crawling along the floor to reception desk for mw to tell me i have to go upstairs to admissions to be assessed before they can put me in labour suite , even though i have history of quick labours, got upstairs mw took one look at me asked my i had been sent up that i needed a delivery suite straight away , phoned downstairs to tell them i was on my way back down , where they had lost all my notes ect 25mins later my dd was born.

The mw that had originally refused my admission came to apologise the following day with the words i'm sorry i didnt admit you but you didnt look like you were in enough pain to be in labour🤔

When I gave birth to DD1 I was on a ward with four other mum's. DD1 was very sleepy due to pethidine being given too close to her birth. The woman next to me, her baby kept crying and she didn't even get out of bed. It was awful as it went on for what seemed like ages and I didn't know what to do. Eventually a midwife had to shake her awake. The woman had ear plugs in!

Oh ha and my own family too. My grandad had a stroke and unfortunately he wasn't going to pull through. I went up the hospital each day as did my step sister, step mother, father and SIL. I had cut ties with the three women so was there for my grandad and father. Whilst my grandad lay dying on the bed, the three women started talking about the helicopter pad and my step sister went on about how the sound of helicopters really turned her on. To much laughter. It was so disrespectful.