Annb
Expert
Oh gennepher, how dreadful for you. The hospital management, or the Trust must be totally inadequate for the jobs they are supposed to do. Surely they must realise how difficult access to their hospital is for anyone with a disability. I'm sure the staff would be trying to do their best in difficult circumstances but the difficulties placed in everyone's way must be infuriating for staff and patients. Is it ignorance, incompetence, lack of compassion or disinterest? It sounds worse than any hospital I have come across, but I have little to compare living on the Islands and with the only major hospital on the mainland. Raigmore can be difficult to access, but nowhere near as bad as your one.I cannot do this again.
Attending this appointment is beyond my capabilities in many ways.
It has already broken the bank getting a decent hotel room for one night with secure parking, and a very long stay in my room. I still have more than 10 hours I can rest in this room. And I still need all of that.
I wish I were back at home where I have more stuff like analgesic cream, and a massager whick would help my swollen leg and ankle. But I could not have brought that massager, it lives on my bed.
I am so glad I don't live here any more, it would have been an horrendous impossibility to get out of the road where I used to live, into the main road, and especially because of the bus lane. It was bad enough 20 years ago.
Back to the hospital, there was no provision for a taxi rank outside. It is difficult to describe the site, With the old hospital, there was a massive taxi rank on the main road outside the hospital. With this new hospital it was a very long way into the site before you got to the main entrance. And the pavements/walkways were chock-a-block full of people struggling to get to that entrance, they weren't wide enough.
There were security guards saying, oh you can't come in this entrance, you have to go further up. And then at the next entrance, the next security guard, said, this is not the main entrance, you have to go up there and round the corner, And I get to that one, and that security guard says you can't come in here, you have to go up there and then blah blah until you get to the main entrance. There were many other people totally bewildered and flummoxed on how to enter the hospital.
I was ready for collapse at this point and the security guard took pity on me, she said come in this way and I'll get you in here, the other way is a long way...
The security guard had to ask directions which corridors and lifts to use. I think she took me through 3 lots of lifts.
There was no WRVS any more anywhere.They used to run main reception, and the tea and food places. Starbucks ran the food and drinks in this new hospital. And there was no available wheelchairs to get you to far flung departments. So, the WRVS are now an outmoded institution, relics from WW2.
I hadn't been able to use my mobility scooter because it had been pouring with rain.
I did notice in the waiting room, that everyone was able bodied. In the old hospital waiting room, there were loads of people who had difficulties walking. None of that at this new hospital. Everyone in that waiting room was able bodied.
Also where were any of the original staff? I have seen the original staff for years. All gone. Totally new teams of staff, many of them wearing a new uniform of red.
It was a longer trek between departments in the new eye hospital. The nurse apologized to me, saying she wished the designers of the new hospital had got together with the actual hospital staff and asked them what they actually needed..
Back to sleep...