Apologies if this upsets anyone, letter from hospital has brought back all the horrible thing about the hospital, do you think it would be ok to send the below to my local PALS?
• When first in a&e a canula was inserted into my arm without consent.
• No drip stands so having to ask husband to hold saline bag for me in bathroom, no dignity in this, and what if I had not been fortunate enough to have husband with me.
• First time nurse brought clean pads to go under me as bleeding a lot, for rest of day was left on bloody sheets
• Was offered morphine for pain, but not told of risks to baby, had to ask myself
• When going for scan, scan photo from previous patient was left up, devastating to see someone else’s healthy foetus when yours is dead, also erodes other patients confidentiality as their name was visible
• Posters of newborns in the scan room. Again painful, and not clinically necessary, only there to advertise bounty.
• Complained of pain in arm from second line for drip, was ignored. Only when they were removed for me to go home did the nurse notice it had split and that was why it was painful
• Food was terrible. Completely inedible bad, cold, and not nutritionally balanced. E.g lunch was undercooked cold roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese (only on top not in the sauce), and boiled carrot and swede.
• Was not told until I had been on the ward for over 4 hours that I was being monitored for fluids and should have been using bed pans in toilet and leaving them for nurses inspection. There also needs to be a better system for this, as going to bathroom, then trying to find a nurse to tell them, is both impractical and undignified. If you are unwell enough to be hospitalised you cannot be expected to wander around a ward looking for a nurse. It is very embarrassing to have to leave a bed pan, full of urine, and blood and clots, in a public bathroom.
• I had to have my family beg for me to be allowed to go home. Nothing was being done, just routine obs, but there was no organisation to allow for me to leave either. Once consultant had confirmed I could leave it took an hour to find a nurse who could remove my lines. She said she thought I had already left.
• I didn’t receive my discharge letter at the hospital as I did not want to wait any longer. When I did receive it, it is incorrect. It states a missed miscarriage. This is not what happened according to my understanding of the term.
• The scan result was the miscarriage was complete. 4 days later, at home and with no medical support I passed the sac. I was so traumatised by my stay in hospital, and so upset knowing my baby would be incinerated as medical waste by the hospital that I did not return to the hospital, and buried the baby in the garden.
• I had a scan a few weeks earlier for a suspected ectopic which turned out to be a false alarm. I lost these photos when rushing to the hospital with miscarriage. I know it is not routine, but asked the EPU if they could find out if I could have a copy from my notes. They promised to have a look but have never responded.
• Despite asking when an inpatient, and having been told all further appointments would be cancelled, 8 weeks after the miscarriage I received a letter from the anaesthetist discussing the risks of my pregnancy.