Patient’s anger at Royal Blackburn Hospital treatment

The experience left Dawn Jones and her partner angry and upset, and they question how staff at Royal Blackburn Hospital would cope in a disaster.

“It was a shambles,” said Mrs Jones (36). “The left didn’t know what the right was doing. They would not be any good in a disaster. They need to change their act and to have a plan of action.”

Mrs Jones was rushed from her home in Pritchard Street by ambulance with emergency appendicitis in the early evening. “I was in A&E for a couple of hours and then I was moved out into a corridor because they needed a cubicle,” she said. “It was very busy in there, but I couldn’t get over how rude some of the staff were. It was as though it was too much bother. One doctor was really rude to a father needing help for a child. They moved me into the corridor and I felt really bad. I was heaving but it wasn’t until 2-15 in the morning that they found a bed on the surgical ward.”

After her operation, Mrs Jones says no beds were available so she was put on a trolley in a recovery area. “I was just on a trolley but one of the nurses stayed with me all the time as I wasn’t in a good state,” she said.

“It was 7 o’clock before they found a bed. It was on C18; I got the impression it was any bed they could find.”

Mrs Jones and her partner, Mark Goodall, thought the trauma was behind them when she was discharged after an overnight stay, but it was not to be.

She said: “I thought it was strange as a friend had recently had the same operation and when he went home he was given paracetamol and codine and arrangements were made for a district nurse. In my case there were no after-care arrangements. I wasn’t given any painkillers and instead told the ring the hospital pharmacy at 7pm to arrange to collect medication. When we rang they said I didn’t need any. Even worse than that is that the discharge papers were sent through the post. Anything could have happened. They could have been lost, or wrongly addressed.”

Mrs Jones’s condition deteriorated at home. The following day she was treated at the Urgent Care Centre in Burnley for a wound infection and given antibiotics and painkillers.

“We’re making a formal complaint,” she said. “Hospital people need to think how they would feel if it was someone from their family being treated like that.”

Medical director Dr Damian Riley said: “We are sorry to hear of the concerns expressed by Ms Jones, however, she has not raised these issues with us directly.

“We take all feedback very seriously and I would urge Ms Jones to contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service directly so we can look into this.”