Nurse..My arse

I wish to complain about the disgraceful treatment of my wife at your A&E department on the evening of Saturday 20th March. In February my wife suffered a miscarriage and had a D&C performed on 24th of that month at Musgrove. My wife started to bleed lightly on March 12th so she visited her Doctor who diagnosed an infection and prescribed some antibiotics. The bleeding cleared by the following Tuesday but on the morning of the 20th March the bleeding had started again it was accompanied by stomach pains and some of the blood was large clots. We contacted out of ours who gave us an appointment to attend Musgrove that evening. The Doctor she subsequently saw examined her stomach and also believed it be an infection and prescribed her three different types of antibiotics. He advised her to maybe see her doctor on Monday to get some swabs taken. He also advised that if conditions worsened to come back to Musgrove. We collected the antibiotics and returned home but a couple of hours later the pains worsened and she passed some very large clots and bleeding was so steady that the pads could not contain it. We made our way to the A&E where my wife sat, clearly in pain with bloodstained hands in the waiting area. I then explained the situation to the A&E receptionist who seeing us walk in, in distress, dealt with us in an expedient manner. She returned and stated a nurse was on her way. Seconds later a nurse appeared at the door and whilst looking in a completely different direction to those in the waiting area shouted “Julie Rayner” I helped my wife up and because she was feeling very faint I had to assist her towards the doorway. The nurse walked on ahead only looking back on us to make sure we were going the right way before showing us into a cubicle. I assisted my wife onto the bed while the nurse stood watching. She proceeded to ask us questions about what was wrong and was abrupt and quite ‘shirty’ because we could not remember what antibiotics my wife had been given. She took my wife’s blood pressure and did not comment what so ever on the results the only comment she gave was “they did explain this could happen, didn’t they” she then stated that the Doctor would come along and see us and then left the cubicle. As we waited my wife’s pain increased and she asked me to get a nurse. I walked to the desk. There were about 6 or 7 nurses at the desk including the nurse who took us to the cubicle. She was amongst a group laughing and joking. On the periphery of this group another nurse noticed me approach and when I explained the situation came to the cubicle and proceeded to take blood pressure again and then assisted my wife give urine sample and generally helped my wife as you would expect a nurse to do. After seeing a doctor my wife was taken to Ward 5 and it was found that the D&C operation had not been successful and another operation was required. Whilst this in itself is traumatic and upsetting we do believe those involved acted with best intentions and to the best of their abilities, however, this cannot be said about the first nurse. She clearly had made her diagnosis and made us feel that we shouldn’t have been there. We were clearly an inconvenience to her as we probably prevented her from having a laugh with her colleagues. At no point did she try to assist us, or reassure us and was completely devoid of any compassion. Her comment that “they did explain this could happen, didn’t they” makes me believe she had made a diagnosis and that she believed this was just bleeding that could happen after that operation and therefore we shouldn’t be wasting her time. This nurse obviously needs to be reminded that she is in no position to diagnose or prejudge patients that visit the hospital and that she is there to ‘nurse’ people just as the second nurse did. To be quite honest we expect an apology from that nurse and confirmation that this nurse has been reminded of her duties and standing within the hospital. It may prevent a situation arising where she misdiagnoses with far more serious consequences. Also the standard “we are disappointed that you feel you were unduly treated, but we at Musgrove....” type letter will not convince us you have taken our concerns seriously.