Not sure what to do, need advice NHS

[HappyMummy567]

Ladies, I’m in a bit of a pickle and I don’t really know what I should do (if I’m not being unreasonable that is).

Today I was sent to A&E for chest pain to be check for pulmonary embolism after an operation under general on Wednesday. Was told I need an ECG and blood test. Was called for ECG and bloods into a small Consultation room (think one desk, one chair & one bed) and got on the bed for an ECG, consultation room door stayed wide open and I could hear all noise from A&E waiting room just outside. Nurse had to remove my shirt and bra but only half closed the curtain, I was ill and felt vulnerable but just let her get on with it, then someone strolled into the room, thankfully just another nurse and she left again. After ECG I got dressed, and sat on chair next to (less than 2m) from the bed for the nurse to take bloods.
Another nurse then came in with ANOTHER PATIENT to ‘fit his cannula’ whilst my nurse was trying to find my vein. The other patient was a prison inmate with two police officers guarding him (not chained if that makes any difference), one of them standing behind my nurse near the bed I had just vacated and the other blocking the door way. Essentially trapping me in the room with a prisoner who, for all I know, could be serving time for anything from shop lifting, identity fraud to rape & murder.

Whilst in the room I mentioned that it was the strangest situation I’d ever been in but I was ignored, my nurse was asking me personal info about if I was on blood thinners and my chest pains etc, and then told me to wait back outside in the waiting room for my results. As I went to leave she said ‘What is your name & date of birth?’ I looked at the policeman in the doorway and he said ‘She needs your name and date of birth’ which I then felt I had no choice but to give to my nurse, and subsequently: the prison inmate (announced as such by one of the policemen when he was checked into reception) his two police guards and the nurse putting a cannula in his arm.
I left the room, went into the toilets, sobbed and messaged my husband. He told me to complain to someone but there wasn’t anyone to talk to who wasn’t in earshot of the inmate & his guards who were now back in the waiting room and I was scared (maybe unreasonably so) that something would kick off.
I told hubby to come and get me and I left without my results. I phone the hospital after I left as a courtesy explaining I had left and the reason behind it so as to not waste anyones time. They just said ‘oh, well I can’t give results out over the phone’ (I didn’t ask for them).

So, I’m right IN the situation and was scared by the position the hospital put me in and lost my trust in them so everything feels a million times worse and nothing actually happened physically to me but surely that can’t be right?

Regardless of him being a prisoner firstly, you don’t share small consultation rooms do you? It was like going to the Drs and then another doctor walks in with another patient and just starts treating them next to you.
Secondly, I dont know what the guy with a slash on his face is in prison for, how do I know if he’s a risk to me? So to put both of us in a room with free access to the sharp needles hanging out both of our arms shows no duty of care surely?
Thirdly, that guy and the police officers have my personal information now when the hospital has a obligation to keep health data secure.

I hate complaining and I have nothing but praise for the NHS but the wait times were 2hrs 50mins no where near the 4hr limit so I can’t understand why we both had to be treated at the exact same time in the same room. Regardless of what pressure the NHS is under surely members of the public have the right to confidentiality. My husband wasn’t allowed in the waiting room but apparently it’s ok for 4 other people to attend my consultation without my consent?

Any ideas if this is standard practice in all NHS hospitals? As in, am I over reacting to something that is fairly standard proceedure?

Sorry for the long rant and thank you if you made it this far xx

Uncomfortable but that standard nhs treatment in casualty or wards is entirely NOT Confidential anyway - remember it’s a row of beds with just about room to walk round and a flimsy curtain.

@HappyMummy567

Thank you to everyone commenting, it’s good to get a broad range of answers, makes you think.

Sounds like it is common place for shared consulting rooms like that, I’ve just never experienced it, it’s always been a one-in one-out process, you get called into a curtained booth or small consulting room, give blood, have ECG or whatever you need and then sent back out to waiting area - I most definitely do not expect a private treatment room just for me to hang about in for my treatment - we all share the rooms I’ve just never known it at the same time before.

The fact that he was called ‘an inmate’ by the police (not prison guards) lead me to believe he was ‘an inmate’ it was not an assumption I made and I think it does make a difference because if he wasn’t ‘an inmate’ then there would have been two less people in the room. If he wasn’t a threat to the nurses, members of the public or himself, why did both the guards need to go with him into a room with only one point of entry/exit and no windows? Why not wait outside the door, if he’s not going anywhere and if he’s not a risk of harming anyone what is their purpose within the treatment room? Surely he is entitled to privacy as much as the rest of us.

I’d suggest he wasn’t a threat precisely because he had police/guards there.

Hospitals attract a wide cross section of society as the previous examples show. That includes drunks, drug takers etc The fact you had police there probably makes it the safest place in the hospital!

Both you and the prisoner should have had privacy. But what is all this politically correct twaddle about the fact he was a prisoner being "irrelevant " ? If the OP was scared and felt intimidated then that is not an irrelevance. Dangerous situations unfortunately do happen. When I was a nurse, a prisoner overcame his guards and held a student nurse hostage for a couple of hours. Also a colleague of mine had a very unpleasant experience with a prisoner who again was being guarded by two officers at the time. Don't be naive about risk ...

This is standard practice I’m afraid. I work in a day case unit and I have to ask all of the patients for their name and dob in front of other patients many times a day. I’m not allowed to administer their treatment without it. Not a single thing. We are based opposite a Catergory A prison and quite commonly we have prisoners in with their guards. They sit in a slightly more discrete side room but there are still other patients in there.
I’m sorry you felt vulnerable. But ID checks are an essential part of safe practice and prisoners have a right to healthcare too.

I've never seen a phlebotomy clinic in a hospital that didn't have at least one other patient in the room (outside of covid restrictions anyway). I've had over 50 cannulas and having someone else around getting theirs done by someone else is 100% normal.

I can't comment on phlebotomy, but that would be unusual at my hospital. When prisoners came in they were always chained to two guards, given a side room and were put into a completely different part of recovery - away from women and children.

I was going to say, as others have, that blood taking is not usually considered a private procedure and therefore can take place in a room with others (the ECG should not as you have to be exposed)

I have definitely had my bloods done on a chair in a line of other chairs in one room with other people there for the same purpose. They have to confirm your name and DOB for the sample bottle to make sure they took blood from the right patient. Again I would not find that very private
I would not want to be giving my address out but name and DOB I'm OK with

I do suspect that if it was an elderly person or a parent and child you would not feel
the same about it.

Usually when prisoners are escorted it's a legal requirement or to prevent absconding rather than due to high risk to others. If he was a high risk to others they would not let him in a public place at all I assume

I once regularly treated a chap in his 80s for dialysis who had 2 prison officers with him one handcuffed to him at all times. He was really frail and wired up to a dialysis machine. If he had tried to abscond he would have bled out before he got anywhere and he had a Zimmer frame and could barely walk anyway. I have no idea what he had done as we only ever talked about the horse racing which he liked to have on whilst having his dialysis and he would often want to give me tips although I have no interest in betting.

I asked the officers at some point if they wanted to just send one and not bother with the whole handcuffs thing under the circumstances but they just replied that it was protocol and would not be changing so it carried on.