Back home after having stent fitted. I had to stay in hospital overnight for them get my pain under control. I was on a specialist cancer ward, so you would think that they would know what the were doing. Thankfully the surgical and anaesthetic teams were brilliant and have done a very good job under testing conditions. Unfortunately the nursing care was a total shambles. I was left in agony all night, as the nursing staff were unable or unqualified to adjust my pain killers, even though it was obvious they were not working. They insisted on giving my Oramorph, which I would throw up instantly, then had to take anti sickness tablets to try to prevent this...….even though I told them numerous times that Oramorph did not agree with me, and I was taking Oxynorm at home, which helped my pain. Then they gave me Tramadol, which did absolutely nothing, but they insisted that this was what they were going to prescribe for me to take home. I was discharged at 11am and the Doctor asked the nurse in charge to send my prescription straight to the pharmacy, without delay, so that I could get home. Between 11am and 2pm the Doctor, and my husband asked the nurse 4 times if she had taken my prescription down to the pharmacy, and she said yes, but they were busy and we must be patient. A 2pm I was told to go down to the 'departure lounge' where my medication would be ready. When we got there we were told that the nurse had only just taken the prescription to the pharmacy but they would chase it through urgently. By 4.45pm we were told that my prescription was ready but they had lost it somewhere in the hospital. That was enough for me. I phoned my GP to let him know what was happening, He instantly wrote me up a prescription for the pain relief that I needed (which was not what the hospital wanted me to take) and I collected it from the GP's pharmacy when I got home. It took 5 minutes for my GP to decide what was best for me, and give me the medication, yet it took the hospital nearly 5 hours to get my prescription through the pharmacy, and then loose it. There was a huge problem in communication, as even the Doctors couldn't understand what the nurse was saying, due to an Eastern European accent. And one last thing that summed up the whole shambles. After suffering so much pain that I though I might give me a heart attack, I pressed the emergency call button. A girl eventually came into my room, and when I told here what my problem was, she said "I have no idea what is going on" and ran out of the room, never to be seen again. All I can say is thank god for my GP.
