Dear Mr

I am writing to try to understand an unfortunate night at your hospital this week. I don’t seem to have a patient questionnaire which might be a better place to comment. Your website I think indicates that a letter to CEO of the hospital is the procedure. If not please do let me know who I should contact.

I have been an inpatient at the XXX several times and on the whole things have gone quite well. Unfortunately there was an upsetting incident of a reaction to a contrast dye administered by mistake last year August 2013. I am allergic to contrast dye and suffered a reaction to that mistake.  That was documented at the time and my husband communicated how disappointed we were in exchange of letters to the hospital.  It was a difficult and upsetting time.

On this occasion I was admitted on Monday 7^th July 2014, for a CT myelogram. In view of my allergies a protocol had been established with X Allergy team. Consultant Radiologist Z was in charge of the procedure and the allergy protocol.  Although I was booked in under Mr Y

Dr Z and his team could not have been nicer, more attentive and more concerned about my welfare throughout the whole procedure. Dr Z came up to my room and explained everything sympathetically and clearly. As you can imagine my previous experiences with contrast dye reactions have made me pretty anxious about the whole thing.  It has taken a great deal of persuasion and planning to organise the CT. The only slight hitch on Monday of this week, was that my birth date was incorrect on all the documentation so that had to be readjusted before we could proceed. New hospital bands being issued, blood test labels reissued and everything else with my name on reprinted.  I am sure I should have spotted that on a form somewhere, but I did not and will henceforth check every single entry on the admission form.

The CT was done in the morning. I appreciate the huge amount of planning and time taken over this, along with all the various personnel who were in radiology for the event. Thank you very much. Everybody was fantastic.

Back on the ward I was looked after by my appointed nurse, I think her name is S. She was brilliant. She organised strong pain relief (oramorph) for my spinal pain, she checked for allergic reaction regularly and did frequent observations keeping a close eye on the situation. By about 8 pm I was becoming very hot and unwell. S called the Outreach team and very quickly it was decided in view of the allergic reaction further antihistamine should be administered IV. They were calm and solicitous to both myself and my poor anxious family who have seen it all happen before.

Things became more stable and Swas able to leave for the day.  The night nurses then took over. Clearly they were tired, stressed and unhappy.  For some reason they decided I could not have any oramorph. One of them, I am sorry I do not know her name, couldn’t get my blood pressure reading. After several attempts with alarm bells jangling from the equipment she started telling the machine to ‘shut up’.  Eventually she realised that she needed to plug the cuff into the leads to make it work. In my confused state I was worried that my blood pressure had dropped so low she could not record it and that I was being told to shut up.  I now realise she was stressed and telling the machine off not me.

At about 11.00 pm (I am not sure of exact times). The second night nurse arrived to do the evening medication.  She gave me my bag of regular medication from home which I had handed in earlier in the day. I had listed all the medication on my own list and given that in. I was also asked to explain each on my checking in procedure at the start of the day. Which I had done with the admitting nurse.  This night nurse was I think called ‘M’.  She said just take my usual medication. So I did do that, unsupervised, from my home bag.  She then came back in with two Tramadol tablets.  Fortunately I said I could not have that as I had already taken some from my home bag. She seemed so cross and so irritated that I had done that. She complained that the drugs had not been written up properly. Again in my groggy state I felt like I had made the mistake. I did not take the tramadol she had brought in that would have been too many.

After more irritated mutterings I asked her what was wrong and why was she so annoyed with me. She insisted she wasn’t but that she would have to get a doctor to come and sort out the situation.  Meanwhile without the oramorph the previously well controlled pain was beginning to break through but I really did not want to cause her any more upset and kept as quiet as possible.

Eventually at about 1.00 a.m., a doctor arrived and I was again able to give her all my home medication, my own list and a brief summary of my day.  She immediately requested more oramorph, sorted all my home meds and eventually I began to get some much needed rest. I am not aware of any of the night staff checking my observations, my allergic reaction or my general well-being throughout the night. In fact one of them suggested I was looking very hot, itchy and flushed. But did nothing to help ease that. One nurse also told me I did not need a catheter, which was a misunderstanding because in fact I have to self-catheterise using CISC regime using disposable catheters, details of which must be in my records.  It is tricky to do at the best of times but especially when feeling ill and disorientated. During the day S had helped me with that. In the night I was too worried to ask and so somehow managed to get to the bathroom and somehow coped.

Morning arrived and with it the day staff.  B was my named nurse for the day.  What a contrast to the night staff. He immediately helped me feel reassured, calmer and less vulnerable. He was sympathetic, solicitous and making checks on my allergies all the time. He found ways to make the itching better and rebuilt my confidence.

Whilst in hospital, I really didn’t want to make a fuss and complain for fear of reprisals. Now that I am home and feeling so much better just writing the letter helps sort out the story in my own mind.  During the night I did not feel safe in hospital.  I do not know what else was going on for the staff. They clearly were having a difficult day and their stress transference made my vulnerability all the worse. They were agitated and perhaps need some help themselves. I am quite sure they are normally fine and certainly my experiences of nursing at the Wellington have never been like this before.  Thank goodness for the daystaff whose confidence with aura of calm and safety made for a quicker recovery.

I am not sure what you can do about this.  I just think those poor nurses need some help and really should not be working in their agitated state. I would hate for other patients to suffer the same way.

Yours sincerely