"Disappointed with the level of care"

Was booked in for elective on the Mon. This went well, couldn't fault the team. After the procedure I was moved to recovery and again couldn't fault any member of staff. I was well looked after. Once recovery was happy with observations, I was moved to a recovery ward on the same floor as the labour suite in the PRM.

From here the care changed. You couldn't even call the ward a recovery ward. There were 2 six bedded areas and each area was staffed by a team consisting of midwifes, care assistants and others but I'm unable to state their role as their name badges were not visible. This meant at times I had no idea who I was dealing with and who was caring for me. Midwifes were seen periodically within the bedded area but most of the time it was care assistants that dealt with buzzer calls and in my experience information was lost in communication between myself, them and then the midwife. For example, on two occasions I asked for pain relief and never got any. When I buzzed to ask what was happening I was told that the request had been lost between the care assistant and the midwife. The Mon/Tue dayshift team were far superior than the night shift team. There was one midwife in particular who I felt really was caring for me in recovery but I couldn't say the same for the rest. 

Some of the things I experienced were:

1. The lack of pain relief on the evening following the elective due to a breakdown in communication between staff. 

2. I was supposed to be mobile at 10pm following the elective. No one came. I had to buzz to ask if someone was going to help me mobilise so that I could care for my daughter that night. I gave staff ample time to do so, fully aware that sometime things don't run on time. At quarter to midnight I was mobilised by my own midwife. It was very slap dash and I was taken to the bathroom via the catheter. A rather bizarre experience. 

I asked the same midwife if I could get some help to care for my daughter in terms of someone handing her over before I was mobilised so I could feed her. I was told outright no and that they were busy. I was lucky that an outstanding care assistant came to my aid. Gave me my daughter who I fed and held for a while and the assistant came back, changed her and put her to bed. 

3. The following day, because of that lack of pain relief, my pain was on top of me and I was begging for pain relief or at least to know what pain relief I was getting or could get. This was my 2nd cesarean and last time round the team would always be on time with meds and were continually asking and reminding me there were other pain meds available should I need them. However, this time round I was told I should let staff know when I couldn't cope. That's what I did that first night and that's what I was doing that day and still wasn't getting anywhere. 

4. My anaethatist doubled my meds. I took 2 courses of this and was able to get myself back on my feet and by the Wed felt really good and ready to go home. 

5. I didn't get home. On the Thu morning I awoke with a sever headache, sensitivity to light and noise and loss of hearing/ringing in my ears. I alerted my midwife who said nothing and 4 hours hours later I requested pain relief which never ever came and eventually I asked to speak to an anaesthetist as I felt I was suffering from a spinal headache. I felt my midwife should have known the signs but didn't. The anaesthetist sorted this with a blood patch. 

The anaesthetist and their team were 2nd to none in terms of communicating with me, caring for me, following up and were a true representation of what care should be like. 

As well as this when the ward is designed for recovery, visitors are not monitored and it's an open visit, at times the 6 bedded area was more like that of a football ground in terms of the number of bodies, the noise level, kids running about, etc. It made recovery very difficult. 

This was an experience that I'd never had before or have known others to have. It's a real shame that this is the level of care in our maternity departments.