"Dignity for patients"

My acute abdominal pain started at 7pm. It just kept getting worse and making me vomit with the pain. I couldn’t sit upright and could hardly talk. I arrived at Craigavon A&E at midnight. I begged for pain relief and repeatedly said I needed to lie down. I continued vomiting with the pain and informed a nurse that when I vomited an also urinated as I had no control.

They took bloods and did a heart trace - I was asked maybe 2 questions by the triage nurse who said they would get pain relief. I was begging at this point. 

Then the doctor stood outside the cubicle and said we have to clear this bed. They did not look at me in the eye or ask any questions. I said I would lie on the floor rather than sit.

I was shuffled out into reception. It took 3 hours before I got IV paracetamol. I asked about 4 times for it and was ignored. While I was on the IV the same doctor came back and said I had to go out into the waiting room again. They did not ask me what was wrong or do a physical examination of where the pain was. 

So I went back out having urinated whilst vomiting and sat for another 4 hours in my own urine on hard chairs. During this time I watched many poor people knocking on the locked door into triage who were ignored for up to 5 mins before being let in.

I am ok - old but strong and not scared to speak up. 

I am frightened for all the vulnerable people who end up at Craigavon A&E, don’t know the system, don’t like to bother people with their problems and find it difficult to communicate.

Begging for pain relief so that I could be able to actually speak and explain my symptoms was not a high point for me. Watching other people begging to be seen or very scared in the waiting room was awful. Being largely ignored for 7 hours and made to feel like an imposition was not acceptable. 

In my experience, breaking point has already come and gone for A&E. I think something very urgently needs to be done to restore dignity to patients in their time of great need, when they can’t help themselves or explain what is wrong.