A Six and a half hour nightmare!

The photo of the place I spent far too long is not inspiring but I didn’t want to include any of the patients.

This is far too long but I needed to outline my nightmare for my future reference,

I had a hospital appointment for an iron infusion. I arrived half an hour early after spending 15 minutes driving round the car park looking for a space. Then Receotion told me the department I needed had moved and it was too far to walk so they would call me a porter.

I was then told he was on his way but he didn’t arrive for 35 minutes so I was ten mins late for my appt but they told me to wait ‘for a chair’. I didn’t know what they meant so had to have it explained . There was a room full of chairs with people having infusions and I had to wait till a chair became free. Eventually I was told to sit in the free chair and wait. It took a while but eventually a nurse tried to put a cannula in. She had two tries in two different parts of my arm and had to fetch another nurse to do it. After that I was told to wait for the infusion. At 16.36 I was still waiting. I was told the prescription for the infusion had to be sent to the hospital pharmacy and they were waiting for it to come back. I can’t understand why, as I had an appointment for 2.30, this wouldn’t have been done in advance. Later I was told that the Consultant (who I’ve never met) had written the prescription for the iron infusion but had not ordered it from the hospital pharmacy. So the nurse had to order it and it took over an hour to arrive.

The room was full and most people seemed to be just waiting with not much happening .

17.40 they finally got drip set up.(it was a 2..30 appointment!) It only took half an hour to go through, with a ‘flush’ after that. Then I had to wait to be disconnected and discharged. I finally left the hospital at 7pm. The car park machine didn’t recognise my reg number and I had to use the ‘help’ button. I was asked which car park I was in. ‘The hospital car park ‘ I said. ‘But which one?’ I was asked. To me it was just one sprawling mess of a car park. It seems there is a ‘too car park’ and a ‘bottom car park’ and u was supposed to know the difference. I eventually escaped. I had left home at 1.15 and got back at 7.45. Not a fun day.