Sunday 23 November 2008
7 hours of agony
Posted on Sun 20 May 2007, 22:16 in Health
Imagine that yesterday you had very painful bone surgery on both feet. In theatre, you were given nerve blocks on both legs. Now the nerve blocks have worn off ....
Your feet are on fire and you ring for the nurse. She tells you to wait 2 hours (by which time you are writhing in agony) then gives you 1 codeine and 2 paracetamol tablets. These tablets are not licensed (singly or in combination) for severe pain, and do nothing for yours. After another hour someone gives you a half-dose of morphine, which also does nothing for your pain.
You ask to see the hospital duty doctor but are told that he "does not do ward rounds". Apparently he signed for the morphine outside your door, but didn't venture in! Someone gives you another half-dose of morphine, which also doesn't work.
Seven hours after the nerve blocks wore off, the surgeon and anaesthetist come to see you, and set up a morphine drip, which finally takes the pain away.
Don't think that this cannot happen to you - the above is a factual report from a recent patient at a well-known private hospital chain with a nice expensive facility just down the road from you!
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I think these days you need a strong willed friend or relative to accompany you to hospital to act on your behalf and get the standard service which you deserve. When you're in pain, tired, and usually dishevelled after treatment, you are not going to have the self confidence to make a noise and demand things.
I worry about the folk who are older or alone and simply get ignored and left to the bare minimum of help whilst in hospital. If you can't feed yourself, then in general you can expect your precious meal to be dropped in front of you and whisked away after half an hour with little or no record of the fact you may be heading to starvation.
The same applies to pain relief as you've described, and also hygiene, sleep, physio and worst of all help with going to the toilet when you need to.
I hope I die before I get too old!
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Sounds an absolute nightmare! But you shouldn't be worried about naming and shaming the hospital concerned, if you want to. If you - or the patient - complained at the time you're telling the truth as you understand it. The hospital can post a comment in response just as anyone can.
Patients need to be warned where bad practice is happening in health - whether it's the NHS or a private hospital.
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