Lost for words

Still very traumatised by the experience so just copying my feedback to the hospital, hope to do more detailed bogging about it later.

What more could we have done?

You could have given me pain relief when i asked for it the first night i was in with an untreated broken leg.

You could have x-rayed both legs when common sense would have suggested that they were both broken.

You could have given me pain relief after major surgery and not left me for 11 hours in excruciating pain despite repeated requests from myself, my daughter and my husband, for medication.

You could have taken non ambulent patients to the loo the minute they asked and not left them on the loo waiting and pleading for rescue for up to 45 minutes with broken limbs dangling.

You could have listened to what patients said far more carefully.

You could have treated the elderly in a far less patronising manner, this seemed endemic and unconscious.

You could have have systems which don't waste eons of time and money while leaving patients with the bare minimum of care and sometimes not even that.

I never wish to set foot in an NHS hospital again.

What did we do well?

A few of the staff, often in the lowest ranks still exercised consistent compassion.