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Hinchingbrooke Hospital 2019-08-13 Person 2 5 0

My husband was brought to A and E by ambulance after suffering a severe laceration to his arm, he was dizzy and traumatised but had to sit in a hard wooden chair for an hour before being seen by the assessment nurse. He was in severe pain so I requested pain relief for him from the receptionist as there was no one else to ask and she reluctantly said she would have to ask the nurse which she did not do. After an hour he was seen by the assessment nurse who did not introduce herself this nurse asked my husband if the arm was broken and if there was any debris in the wound. This would not be known to him unless he had an x ray which the nurse left to him to decide if he wanted one instead of assessing him and deciding herself. The nurse was unaware my husband had been brought in by ambulance and had not read the ambulance transfer letter which stated the severity of the injury and she was suggesting it could be treated with glue and steri strips. She did not offer him any pain relief so I asked her to supply him with some and she found him some paracetamol and appeared annoyed when he had no water to take them with and begrudgingly went to get him some. The assessment nurse suddenly disappeared with out warning and eventually returned with an x ray form. My husband was very dizzy but she wanted him to walk to the x ray department until I suggested he may be better in a wheelchair which she again seemed not keen to go and find. I pushed him to the x ray dept and when we got there asked how long the wait would be we were told no longer than half an hour as we had come from A & E, after an hour my husband had not had his X ray so I went to the desk to enquire why this was as the waiting room was not very full and it transpired he had been put on the GP list and not the A & E list. Eventually the x ray was performed, my husband was not treated with respect by the radiologist who did not make eye contact introduce herself or talk or respond to my husbands enquiries. We went back to the A & E dept and waited to be seen again by the assessment nurse. By now confidence in this nurse was low. She again stated she could probably close the wound conservatively. The nurse asked my husband to lie on the couch and proceeded to assess the wound, she did not wash her hands before doing so or use a sterile pack. She cleaned the wound wearing one glove from the non sterile box, then after acknowledging the wound was after all beyond her capabilities she went to see one of the doctors, she did not wash her hands before leaving the room. When she came back she called the orthopaedic reg as it was deemed necessary to perform surgery to treat the wound. The nurse then proceeded to put a temporary dressing on the wound and again did not wash her hands. She did open a sterile dressing pack but did not use any of the contents apart from some gauze which she put back onto the sterile field and did not wear gloves at all. The nurse found my husband a bed in a cubicle and we waited to be seen by the surgical team. From this point the care did improve but still none of the doctors washed their hands and the deputy sister did not either. They used gloves to assess the wound but wore the gloves to close the curtains before doing so. Also the deputy sister went in and out of the room wearing the same gloves. No hand washing went on at all. The doctor did however wear a pair of sterile gloves. My husband was transferred to Daisy ward and when we got to the nurses station there was no welcome from the nurses not even an acknowledgement of my husbands presence, just a loud complaint that they were not expecting that no handover had been given from A & E which made him feel like an inconvenience when he was already traumatised and vulnerable. The back rest on the bed was not working and when my husband informed the nursing staff they told him he would have to put up with it as the bed makers had gone home and they couldn't' swap the bed. Also my husband had to inform the nursing staff he needed anti biotics which he didn't receive until after 1 am, he was admitted to the ward at 18:00 the previous evening.