Dear All I need to talk to you about my recent hospital stay in xxx London. Friday 4th DecemberI was on a trolley in Aand E all night. And I was told it was a quiet night in A and E and my consultant at xxx had rung ahead. I was moved every few hours to a new bay. No idea why. But I am guessing that avoids breach targets. It does cause confusion. Such confusion that the Doctors lost me. The Eric system had lost me. The over reliance on the computerised system known as Eric. It is so unreliable that the nurses and HCA S record observations blood pressure temp etc on paper towels that they pull off-rollers by the sinks. Hopefully that is bio secure hopefully the data is input accurately. Hopefully. This happens on the wards too.
On the ward I was eventually moved to, it was declared a ‘red zone’. ie. scrubs and some PPE. The antibiotics I had been prescribed were not available in the hospital. Although eventually one dose was discovered and administered. I was prescribed iv paracetamol. The well known excellent painkiller administered by iv is very effective and very much better than oral. But again after a few doses the ward had run out of this too.
The nurses found the visors over their faces too annoying. So they wore them on their shoulders. They all wore masks. Some, over their noses. Others wore the sort of goggles we used to use in school science lessons. One night nurse wore ski goggles. No. I do not know why. Doctors seemed to think they were exempt. They wandered around in shirts and jeans. Mainly with masks but had to be chased away by nurses if they had no mask. Nor visors for the isolation beds.
In A and E everyone is tested for covid. Before being moved to the ward. As the results are no longer the fast one hour tests, as before, patients are moved to red zone ward whilst awaiting results. It does not take a genius to work out that inevitably a test will come back positive. This happened whilst I was there. That meant more swab tests for patients in the same bay. Without much explanation this caused huge alarm. One lady , a cancer patient, quite literally went berserk with fear. She had shielded as instructed for 9 months and now she had been exposed to covid in the one place she might have been safe. She screamed and shouted and swore and lashed out. Security were called. On call matron was called. She was removed. Don’t know where. As for my Covid test. No one has told me my result. Let’s hope it was ok. Let’s hope.
One elderly lady was so confused atthenews she was ‘exposed’she thought she was contaminated. She refused food drink medication nursing care washing or changing. She was in continence pads and must have been wet and soiled. From my bed I could smell that. That’s a good a reason to mask up as any. She appeared to genuinely think everything was contaminated. She was asked several times if she knew where she was. The Day. Date. Year. Counting backwards. She got it right every time. I am not sure I would have! As no relatives are able to come in to calm her down, help her eat or drink she has deteriorated alarmingly over just three days. If it were my mum I’d want to know she was safe. I’d want to be able to at least speak to her over FaceTime etc to try to persuade her to accept care. But food trays arrived. Were taken away untouched. Water, warm, in a jug just out of reach .I helped as best I could. At night I was asked to ring my nurse call bell if this old lady tried to get out of bed. I said I would. I must have fallen asleep so was infinitely relieved to find a HCA had been stationed in our bay to keep an eye. She had wrapped herself in a blanket. She too fell asleep I know that, because she snored . So I did my best to keep watch instead.
There are big see through shielding screens between each bed. But these have been folded back ‘ because they are a trip hazard’.
The nurses computer and phone was an arms length away from my bed. So yes I heard every handover, every patient history, every doctors joke and laugh. I only felt I should intervene when two doctors were talking about a seriously ill patients and end of life care. Through tears I politely asked them to stop and take the conversation elsewhere. Not only did they appear genuinely surprised that I was thereafter all, in an invisibility cloak I suppose, but also they told me not to worry, ‘ we are not talking about you’ . That is hardly the point. Is it?
The food was dreadful . The breakfast at about 9 was toast and cereal. The toast so soggy I could not cut it with my knife. In fact i gaged so much I couldn’t eat it The cereal in small packets was fine.
Lunch I chose cheese salad. This was a few cubes of cheese with limp lettuce.

Supper at 5:00 was a jacket potato. Horribly overcooked and inedible. Orange juice, my ‘ starter’ was 85ml That’s all . From concentrate and sugary. My dessert an apple because the fruit yogurt I chose was sugar full caramel This is horrendously unhealthy miserable and hardly likely to speed recovery
Some random soup was offered each morning from a coffee flask. No one had any.
The wastage and further harm to patients must be huge.
The time between supper at 17:00 and breakfast next day at 0900 is far too long without food drink or even a cup of tea. No wonder the patients deteriorate.
As for my own medical care. The lack of communication between urology team members is simply outrageous. No one knew how to telephone or get hold of each other. The outstanding nurses on the ward did everything they could to help. We even crowded round their screen together. With masks on. To try to work out what the treatment plan was. The notes said my suprapubic had been removed. Of course it was not difficult to establish that actually at that point it had not. During a shower my suprapubic suddenly started pouring blood. I grabbed a towel to hold against it and the nurses helped me clear myself up also they had to get the bathroom cleaned. The Urology doctor said this was normal. I tell you this is not normal. I know that because I’ve had various catheters and suprapubics for over 10 years. Please don’t insult me but telling me total inaccuracies.
I cannot praise the nurses enough. I wrote to you during my stay to praise them. They are under massive pressure. The Infectious Diseases team led by DrAwesome are outstanding. Everything else seems a total muddle.
My concern is for the patients I’ve left behind. Lucky me I escaped and have the wherewithal to sort myself out.
Once again I am more than aware of the stress and drain on resources that the pandemic has caused. There is simply no excuse for this lack of care and frankly neglect.

I think we can make this better. What can I do ?