The NHS is wonderful.

The NHS is wonderful. As a patient I dare not say otherwise. Most of it is fantastic but there are small isolated pockets that are not as good as they might be, that is to say, potentially or intentionally lethal. Such an area has a queen bee whose confidence in her own competence is so low that she bullies and shouts and mocks like the central character of Abigail’s Party.

Such a pocket of terror is the recovery suite of my local hospital. I have to say it is not their fault. It is the job of nursing staff there to stabilise the patients wheeled into them after an operation before sending them on to the ward where the patient’s notes await attention. I was told that the notes are not accessible by the nursing staff in Recovery, nor are the medications the patient brought in with them.  The doctor tells the nurse in charge of their patient of the situation and what is expected of them.

Maybe those nurses are overworked or have poor memories, or they are just in the jurisdiction of a bully. Some patients might not come through the operation alive and nurses must face up to seeing that.

So I was wheeled in there unconscious after a surgical procedure under anaesthetic and awoken by the surgeon. I heard him speak to the nurse, heard him tell her that I have MS and needed to be given the routine MS medication I had brought with me as soon as I was well enough to swallow. I did the physiotherapy as instructed, asked for the tablets and was denied them.

Next time I regained consciousness I told the nurse my left leg hurt more than the shoulder that had been operated on, told her I have MS and needed the tablets, asking that she fetch them for me. My voice was still quiet and groggy. She turned away, calling to the other staff about the silly things people say when they come out of anaesthetic, “This one thinks she has MS!” Then turning to me she added, “let’s have the doctor decide that, shall we?” and walked away. My mind could not quite capture the name of the consultant neurologist who had prescribed for me. Why would anyone hallucinate about having MS? Oh, how I wish it was a passing delusion! But it is not and it does deliver seizures if the right tablets are not taken on time, and after an operation that is enough, apparently, to knock me unconscious. The bullying nurse told me I was to be kept in overnight because I was not stabilised, to which I replied that I could not do that, I was a day patient and had left the rest of my MS medications at home. She laughed loudly, mocking me as a delusional idiot. 

After 5 hours of this a different nurse, small, smart and caring, asked courteously if there was anything she could get for me. “Yes,” I said, quietly and coherently. “200 milligrams of gabapentin, 20 milligrams of omeprazole, 30 to 40 minutes for the side effects to pass, my clothes, my sister, my handbag, my mobile phone and my discharge papers please.” She ran off and got my tablets, delivered with a glass of water. After 30 minutes nobody came to discharge me so I set about disconnecting all the sensors they had stuck on my body. This set up an alarm that summoned attention, another bucket of ridicule, and my bed was wheeled through corridors with the bullying nurse still shouting about me like a corgi biting my ankles.
 

In the ward I saw my sister, my clothes and the chance to leave so I ripped off the gown and put on the clothes with complete disregard to privacy and decorum. A nurse pushed a trolley with a plate and cover to me saying that was my dinner. “No, my dinner is awaiting me at home, I now need my discharge papers please?”

After a lot more fuss and protests from staff I escaped the hospital and my sister drove me home, flustered at hearing a different story from me than she had been told over the phone. The Recovery Ward told her I was very ill and wanted to keep me in. I was telling her I know I’m too ill to be here and need to go home.

 

Maybe a patient can imagine she might have MS but I doubt such a delusion could generate all the symptoms of Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis that have not been quelled by medication as required.

The operation was a success; the consultant neurologist’s prescription decisions are excellent and accurate, my GP’s are brilliant and supportive, and the eye hospital I use is amazing, the best in the world. But that one bad nurse ruined my regard of that prestigious hospital and she will resist all disciplinary proceedings as bullies always do. If the surgeon had written MS on my other arm maybe the nursing staff would have been more believing of my words but while the system dictates that Recovery Suite staff must not have access to patient notes mistakes like this will continue to be made.

Imagine what it would be like for a patient who does not have a sister to be there for her!

Thanks, Sis! You probably saved me from becoming a statistic.

Sue Doughty

17/7/13