PALS

No, here the choice is Basingstoke or Basingstoke - when we had chose and book it would say Basingstoke xxx clinic 1, Basingstoke xxx clinic 2 and so on. 

To me an ex Hertfordshire girl their self centred attitude is peculiar, some of them actually avoid leaving the confines of the town. Honestly its not that great, as I say there may be many Readings but there is only one Basingstoke!

D 

So I am writing a letter of complaint to the customer services department  of Basingstoke hospital not for any failure of care directed towards me but because of an experience they made me live.

There was a girl in the bed opposite me that had some unusual condition that left her in agonising pain, she came onto the ward suckling on an entonox cylinder. On my last day in the morning her pca ran out, it started alarming while she was asleep so being the accommodating type I called a nurse, who muted the alarm and told the hca they would need more.The nurse was agency staff so despite being well qualified she wasn't allowed to authorise drugs. In fact for over an hour there was nobody to authorise anything stronger than paracetamol Matron was just up the corridor conducting a meeting that the ward clerk said they were forbidden to disturb.

I had to watch this young woman wake in pain, writhe, clutch a vomit bowl and sob for an hour, I am really no good with social nuance I struggle to interact with people except through a medium like this, but an hour of watching someone that was the same age as my nieces... in the end I was sitting on her bed rubbing her leg and trying to get her to talk about her daughter a's a distraction. I narrated every step when the new tube for her pump arrived so that she hung on because I'm not fond of vomit but I know it's sh****** being sick.

After that I would have heartily slugged matron because her meeting was so important that she left the ward with inadequate staff. In the end it was sister front the neighbouring ward that stepped in. 

If this is adequate patient care at Basingstoke then send me to Reading

D

I had the acknowledgement  from customer care, the usual stuff, we will investigate and so on, we want more personal details  from you, we want to phone you, we want you to come in and meet with us. Sorry I can't do either, at the moment I can't drive which is the only way to make the journey. And I just don't give out my phone number to people that are randomly going to call. It's part of the whole anxiety disorder.  They also say I should contact the county advocacy  service which worries me a bit, do they think I am too deluded to speak for myself or are they planning a scream shout dressing down for having the gall to complain?

I'm happy to give my mobile number because the service at home is so poor it's limited to texts and the odd call that drops out after a few seconds. Probably doesn't help that I'm on a proper pay tariff so I'm first to be dumped when the tower reaches its limit.

I suppose i'll just wait and see.

D