I = Interviewer
R = Respondent

I
Okay…

R
(Pause) Yeah, mine’s not a very happy story. I’ve been in hospital, I’ve had some dreadful experience and the only kindness I’ve had was from individual nurses or medical staff. Because they are the ones that you are involved with mostly. Er… I fin that (pause) they’re influenced by their senior staff and if their senior staff aren’t caring they become uncaring. (Pause) Er… I think junior medical staff are all the same. They do two years, they feel they know everything and they too become… (Pause) The patient is the last person on their agenda. If they can please their consultant, they’re happy. That’s not true of all of them. You do find occasional ones who do care. But it’s very, very rare. It really is. (Pause) I found that… In a bay with patients – really old ladies – in one bay an old lady left with a coat over her for 24 hours because they didn’t have any blankets. Another old lady not given a drink, unless her relatives were around her and then she was absolutely (pause) overcome with attention from the senior nursing staff. (Pause) And just a smile in the morning from, uh (pause), student nurses or long housemen… (Pause) very, very few of them have the, um… (Pause) They just don’t give you a good morning or a smile or… And some of them don’t even look clean. (Pause) I don’t know how I can get through to some young girls as to (pause) even look clean first thing in the morning and not smell of last night’s lager and pizza and talk about last night’s episode with the boyfriend or the kids or (pause) talking over the bed. (Pause) (Chuckles) I’m afraid it’s not sounding very… (Pause) It’s… (Pause)

I
Would you be able to tell us what took you into hospital on this occasion and how long you were in?

R
Well, I was in the first time for, er, a week. (Pause) That was in March. The second time in for two weeks. But there was the very first week… (Pause) I went to the shops, which are 5 minutes away (pause) and I just couldn’t get to the shops. I’d been ill for about a fortnight with a heavy cold. Just (pause) couldn’t get, which… You know, you’ve seen how far those shops are away. But I needed milk and I needed toilet rolls. You know, which… (Pause) Are just normal commodities. I had to find a (pause) social worker myself once I got in there to help me with these things. And, er, I had to find a physiotherapist myself. You know, because I didn’t know whether I could walk up and down the stairs because I was absolutely breathless and I was going to be discharged and… (Pause) But I had to do that myself… (Simultaneously) I did ask…

I
(Simultaneously) While you were in hospital?

R
Yeah. I did ask nursing staff, nothing was done. And I did say, you know, “Which one is a physiotherapist…?” Well I knew by their uniform. And then which one was a… (Pause) Erm… (Pause) A social worker – you know – to do… (Pause) To get some… (Pause) Shopping. But that was what first got me into the ward that was absolutely, and completely, disgusting. Old ladies left without a drink. Too much sitting around the Nurse’s Station. But all stemming from the senior nursing staff. If they’d… (Pause) Another thing for young girls – be the first out of the Nurse’s Station. Don’t sit there as long as everyone else does. You know, it’s not… (Pause) It’s nothing for you to be up first on your feet and get to see to the patients instead of sitting gossiping around, em, nursing stations – which they do. I think you see that… You see that on film. On here, if there’s anything you see a crowd of nurses around the station and… (Pause) You know, try and (pause) be the first out to help. Or try and… (Pause) I thanked one support worker for giving an old lady a drink (pause) and she said, “That’s my job.” The next minute I was moved from that bay because I was obviously being sarcastic because we were feed… We were giving the old lady drinks. (Pause) I was moved straight away from that bay to another bay and my bed was moved in, my sheets were on the ground and they were in urine. You know, you could smell it and you could see it and two nurses said, “It’s not urine, it’s just water.” But it was… (Pause) And then a third nurse came and said, “Yes, there’s been a catheter bag burst down here”, you know? “Her sheets are lying in urine.” But it… (Pause) I felt you had to fight (pause) all the way. The only way you got any attention was if you had massive amounts of relatives beside your bed, day and night. Then you were given every attention. As soon as those relatives disappeared, the patients were just left. (Pause) This is a hospital in Newcastle (pause) and just happening last year. It was the most dreadful experience of hospital life.

I
Did you make a complaint?

R
I complained orally to a consultant. It was a medical ward so they… (Pause) It was all just passed off. It was, you know… (Pause) Previously I would have complained (pause) and written but I really hadn’t the… I hadn’t the incentive or the energy to do it. I had no energy whatsoever. I’d already made a complaint about another hospital within in the region the previous year. I got to the stage of all the writing of letters – which I had to do by hand, I don’t have a computer – and… (Pause) In the end, the person I was complaining about – which was a ward sister – was counselled and I was left with the dregs of all of this here. Of writing, visiting the ward… Visiting the hospital and… I just thought, “What’s the use?” If I’d wanted to take it further to any of these other agencies I would have had to handwrite again, letters, and by then I was really feeling so dreadful that (pause) I didn’t do it. So… (Pause) I think leaving things – unless you have a strong (pause) support, er… (Pause) Er… (Pause) Well, unless you do have strong support from friends and family, (pause) I don’t think… I feel very sorry for any patient. I really do. Because you have to fight all the way. There may be exceptions, but I certainly didn’t find any. I find the senior nursing staff don’t even have the courtesy to say, “Good morning.” Even if you aren’t their patient, they are in overall charge of the ward. (Pause) But you don’t… I walked past a ward sister – the senior ward sister – she said, “Where are you going?” I said, “I’m going to make a phone call in the Day Room” – the patient’s Day Room. She said, “The nurses are having their break in there. But you can go in if you want to.” So I did go in and make the phone call, but it was as if I was intruding on the only place where one could make a phone call. And they were the only words she spoke to me for the whole week that I was in there. And she was running the ward, so… (Pause) Her assistant, trying to do three jobs at once – do a drug round, clear breakfast dishes, three hours later than the drugs were due, and give out wash bowls and leaving old ladies with a bowl behind screens for… (Pause) I think I’ve said sufficient. (Chuckles) I’ve…

I
What’s your feeling about having to go back in…? If you had to go back into hospital again?

R
Well I’ve said that (pause) if I have to do go back, and I think, you know, with this AF and COPD and things, I think I will have to go back in. And I’ve said I won’t go to this ward. But really, when you get there you’re in their hands. You know? And if you have… (Pause) There’s very little you can do unless you discharge yourself. I tried to discharge myself. (Pause) I was put in a wheelchair, asked to sign the form. I couldn’t get down to the entrance to order a taxi because I couldn’t walk. And er, (pause) I said, “Well…” (Pause) This… This was a young, disgusting houseman… (Pause) “How can I…? (Pause) Will someone get me to the entrance so I can order a taxi?” He said, “No, they won’t.” I had my bags and… (Pause) “Just sign the form and get out.” And I couldn’t sign it because I couldn’t get down to the entrance, you know, so…? (Chuckles) (Pause)

I
So you had to stay.

R
I had to stay. Yeah. Yeah. (Pause) But… (Pause)

I
And you’ve got some care in the community? You’ve got some social care support, have you?

R
I have, em, (pause) home help – they call them carers now, I think. An hour on a Monday to do help with the housework. And an hour on Friday to do the shopping. (Pause) Er… (Pause)

I
And are you largely housebound?

R
I’m largely… I try to get out. I have a friend, a friend lives in Consett. I try to get out, perhaps once a fortnight, with her for lunch and… (Pause) It’s quite difficult because, (pause) you know, she has a family. She has… She works full time. She has a daughter… You know, they’ve just had a baby. (Pause) And… (Pause) This is all, really, just by the way. I just see her either once a week or once a fortnight, you know, but… And I try to go out. I go, er, down to town and have lunch and get a taxi back. (Pause) And I’m shattered for two days. You know, just for having lunch with… (Pause) But it’s… I just feel unless you can keep on trying or go, perhaps, to the Metro Centre… Get a taxi over and then go to a restaurant and shattered. You know, so…

I
So the library service is important to you?

R
Hoo… Gosh, yeah. And the lady comes – Violet, I don’t know her surname – she’s been absolutely terrific, she really has. I’ve always read a lot, but now, as you see – I don’t know if you saw, I’ve got a (pause) a trolley downstairs… A shopping trolley. I haven’t driven for 4 years. I packed up driving. Which was a silly thing to do at the time. But I’ve always… You know, for 4 years I’ve walked along there and, er, (pause) got the books from… You know, there is a library along there – you got the books from the library along there. Then when all of this happened and then, I think I rang them and asked them if there was a mobile library, you know. Someone said you could go to the end of the street or something. And then, (pause) er, I came that this… Violet came and she came once a month. She comes once a month. She leaves me 10 books. She’s absolutely… She’s just got a terrific personality, you know. And you just wished that every carer, every nurse, every doctor, could have the personality and the enthusiasm that this library lady has, you know. Which is (pause) asking a lot, but…

I
So, her particular qualities, (pause) are…? What would you say they are?

R
Well, (pause) she brings me books that… You know, she’s obviously thought of what I like. I… I can’t concentrate much now but, you know, I used to like, em, I think I said to her I like female, English authors. And now everything in… (Pause) Or mostly in large print, because I read mostly in bed. And she doesn’t forget anything. You know, if you give her one book that, if I’ve read a review of it she’ll, next month, she’s got it there for you, you know. She… I can’t read… Read… (Pause) Paperbacks because I can’t hold them with this hand, you know. So as soon as I said that to her, you never saw a paperback again. You know, she’s just got a caring attitude, you know, so… (Pause) I just think, em, (pause) I just think a lot of her. You know enough… (Pause) She’s just a jolly good all-rounder, you know. Someone that you don’t see (pause) much of, today. You know, I find most, a lot of people are selfish. A lot of people are… (Pause) and the just gives you a bit of faith in human nature again, you know. (Chuckles) (Pause) So…

I
(Pause) Thank you very much.

[End of transcription]

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