All’s well on the Potemkin Ward.

It has been a challenging week and no, not just for me. I was admitted to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital due to what I assumed were new developments in the pain around the fibroid which will require major surgery. I was admitted as the lactate levels in my blood were of real concern and these were caused by convulsions.

To manage my epilepsy, I was told I must avoid stress.

Then I get a double-whammy of communiques from the DWP requiring me to prove to them that I am not just a lying wastrel by presumably having a fit and being doubly incontinent right in front of them otherwise I will tick the “perfectly well” box.

How pray tell, does one avoid stress under these conditions? If you know, please let me know.

I started the process of trying, with help, to fill in the lengthy and largely irrelevant form. I don’t remember much about that day. I know my pain levels increased to level ten on the one to ten scale and I know that by Monday I was having fit after fit. I think I counted seven.

What I now know is I also had a fit on the Friday during the process of filling in the form. The scary thing is I remember nothing about that. Nothing. I usually get an aura which gives me a window to get myself in the recovery position but this time nothing. My brain clearly decided to shut me down as the stress would short-circuit me altogether.

In A&E I was told “you are very unwell (I am sure that is a euphemism for you are about to peg out) and have to be sent up to a ward”.

In A&E a psych liaison not working with me as for once I was deemed not to need one, made me a cup of tea so good that I said he must have been Scottish in a previous life. Then the delightful B appeared on the scene. She is another RMN & had realised I was in A&E. She is a force of nature. She dresses in a style I would call Afro-Eclectic. It was on this occasion a full length purple Nigerian dress over sparkly leggings and sequined trainers. The current hairstyle is 70s Afro. I love this woman. She is wise and does not hold back in terms of giving me a stern talking to. She has sat with me on suicide watch so often. She took time to sit with me and chat about anything and everything.

She actually made me laugh.

I had wanted to die.

This one nurse made me laugh enough to want to live, and it was not even her job to take care of me.

After that I got transferred to the Acute Assessment Unit in the part of it they call “trollies”. They are not trollies but I think it is just to be seen as a sort of transit centre – the Staten Island of Chelsea and Westminster.

There I found myself helping out a woman with dementia who could only speak French. The staff knew the boundaries but it helped to have me shout from the opposite bed “she is saying she has peed herself”. An enterprising and utterly magnificent Irish nurse was using Google translate so getting it horribly wrong which again gave me something to laugh about. I told her later she was totally getting through to the lady not because of Google but because she was a natural communicator.

From there I was moved precisely one bay along to where the “trollies” (which are in fact beds) officially become “beds” (which are exactly the same as the trollies). I do hope you are following this, dear reader. I spent the night there, or rather what was left of it. The trouble around all these moves, is that they create more opportunities for gaps in processes. Information from A&E had already gone astray by the time I got to be a “trolly dolly”. There were further errors after the move 50 metres away to the “non-trollies”. I had to be so on the ball about what had been said and agreed. I had had seven seizures, my brain was not in great shape but I can’t help think of those who for example had dementia or those whose first language was not English for example.

Early next morning, I was told I was to be moved to an actual ward.

As usual in the bed-hopping process, information had disappeared down chasms never to be seen again. This mean that I had to spend a night with no pain relief at all as the Buprenorphine patches which I was told would be prescribed were in fact not prescribed. That was one very long night. I did not sleep at all.

The next night was also rather long. There was it seemed, only one nurse on duty who was not even from our ward, to cover at least 17 beds which meant doing medication and trying her best to keep an eye on vulnerable patients many of whom had dementia. This is one of the specialisations of the ward I was on. And of course she quite rightly had to have a break leaving us basically on our own. One lady was very distressed and kept getting out of bed and heading off down the corridor. She was unsteady but, boy, she moved with purpose.

How can it be safe to have one member of staff trying to concentrate on dispensing meds in the middle of a ward where chaos was only ever a hair’s breadth away? Could this be why errors happen? (Rhetorical question).

That is when we patients and one carer sitting with her critically ill mother stepped in. We patients monitored the movements of this lady and guided her back to bed whenever she took off, which was frequently.

By morning it felt as though we had done a night shift ourselves.

It was then staff started to confide in me about staff shortages. I believe one or two of them follow me on Twitter so they saw me as an ally.  I got so incensed about what they were telling me, I tweeted the new Secretary of State Matt Hancock. It was about 4am. Little did I know he was in the building at that time on a massive PR exercise as illustrated by his photo the next day with a crowd of smiley staff – at least six times more of them than we had on duty. He needed to be where the reality is not in PR land.

One of the doctors told me another doctor had binned the happy clappy script and given the SoS some home truths, funnily enough saying exactly the same things I was saying in my Tweets about staffing levels. He had the guts to say what they were likely all thinking. Have his comments and courage been met with the gratitude they deserve? Somehow, I doubt it. As for you, Secretary of State, I hope you enjoyed your night with us, but please be aware that elsewhere in the very same hospital patients were having to provide patient safety as the sole nurse had had to take a break. Yes, digital is the future or at least a vital part of it, but if and only if the basics have been addressed.

The results on our ward were staff on short fuses though doing their very best, staff running from task to task, staff with no time to talk to patients, to comfort them, to reassure them – all sorts of things that used to define the caring professions. And as for errors? When plates are constantly spinning with only one person trying to keep them in the air, they are going to start smashing on the floor. Only these are not plates, these are people, and in that, I include the staff themselves. I saw a number of talented young HCAs and nurses running on passion and adrenaline alone. I know to my cost where that takes you.

As for me, I got through what was a terrible week thanks to my Twitter family and my ward family. I also got by by being useful. I bonded with a lovely Moroccan lady who understood French so again I found myself helping out with the communication. She understood me anyway. Her daughter helped translate some of her observations of me. This 90-something felt I needed to be kinder to myself. She also said I had a big heart. She pointed to her own heart, then pointed at me after I stepped in to sort out the utter balls up around her discharge. I loved her too. I wish I could have known more about her life. I bet a lot of staff wish they could do the same, but how on earth can they even get as far as “Hello my name is” under these circumstances?

Let’s pause a moment to talk about discharge. Surely this should be a seamless process given that information about discharge date is generally available a couple of days in advance. This lovely lady was told she was going home, which she was desperate to do, at 6pm. By six she was already in her outside clothes, clutching her belongings in her hospital issue plastic bag. Her face was wreathed in smiles as she waited finally to go back to her own bed. Her daughter who had been interpreting, had gone to her home ahead of her to make sure it was all ready for her.

Then she waited some more.

Then more.

At no point did anyone try to talk to the lady.

After she waited in bed in her outdoor clothes for three hours I had had enough as I could see she was getting visibly distressed. I was told all was in hand as the daughter was on the phone etc.

We waited some more.

By this time, the old lady was so distressed, I was distressed to look at her as was the retired NHS employee in the next bed. Thankfully there was a change of shift and two total stars came on duty – one HCA who oozed common sense, and a nurse, a real nurse. They told me the truth. I always appreciate that. I can work with that no matter how bad it is. It turned out that a fax had been sent to transport who claimed not to have received it. Two things come to mind. One, why on earth is the NHS still using faxes when according to the new SoS we won’t even need to go into hospital, we will send in our Avatar instead? Secondly, did anyone read the fax report that would show whether it had been received? We were now 4 hours on and the poor lady was still lying there in tears, not understanding a word any well-meaning member of staff tried to tell her. She had only Arabic and basic French.

I was by this time being treated as some de facto carer though up to my eyeballs on Oramorph and in my PJs. I was asked to assure her in French the transport would be there in 90 minutes. I decided to make it two hours as I had an odd feeling about NHS timescales already.

She was happy enough with that. Then, ten minutes later – I think by now we were five hours after the time she was told she was going home – I was asked to translate that there was…err…a new development. There WAS transport but…it was in Peckham. I took an executive decision at this stage to suggest we explain to her that there was no transport for that night so if she had a good sleep, we could make sure she got home early in the morning. My neighbour asked me to tell her she was safe as she was among friends, meaning the other patients.

She then of course needed help to get back into a nightie, her bed tidied and basically given some TLC. I tried and failed to get any staff to do this as they were already hassling to arrange the transport for the next morning. The other patients arranged it. The two staff on shift were not responsible, they had been handled a massive comedy of errors by the shift before which consisted of one HCA with zero common sense and an agency nurse who had never been there before.

Once our lovely friend settled down to sleep I was so strung out I went out for a walk round the deserted hospital. In the end I went right outside to the Tesco over the road and bought donuts. It was after 11pm.

Next morning eventually transport came. I helped her back on with her cardigan and we patients stood to wave her off on her stretcher. She waved all the way along the corridor and did not let go of my hand until she reached the outside door to the ward. Tears were streaming down my face by this time.

There are a number of issues here but a major one is whether there is ANY effective communication between transport and the hospital proper.

Also, there was a distinct feeling that between the group of six patients, we had more skills of use than the original team present. There was a carer, one retired NHS employee who had 30 years experience, and there was my ability to communicate in whatever language that gets thrown at me.

But I was not there as a roving troubleshooter, though time and time again that is what I become, I was there as I was in great need myself:

Often I sat on my bed in tears. I was desperate for a kind ear. I was in a lot of pain so much so I was on Oramorph. I was sick to the core with fear over the DWP. I found my bank account had had some fraudulent activity go on which meant I had been cleaned out. Finally I had a perfunctory email from the Royal College of Psychiatrists advising me that “on this occasion I had been unsuccessful” blah blah, for a role on which I had set my heart. I could have made a real difference in terms of giving me a purpose and some peace of mind, and it played exactly to my strengths. After getting the news, it seemed at that point I did not even have any strengths. I felt like a punch bag. I recalled Orwell’s metaphor of a boot stamping on a face forever.

But no-one had time to talk to me, and as I didn’t want to upset my ward mates, I did most of my crying in the loo.

One spate of crying appeared at the same time as lunch. I sobbed into my Korma. Once again, I felt I wanted to die, but there was no-one to tell. They just do not have the time. I am not saying they don’t care. They care deeply. Why else would they turn up every day or night for more of the same? Are they being given the chance to use the skills in real caring and compassion, the values that made them enter the profession? Of course they are not. This is about plate-spinning.

If you enter Chelsea and Westminster Hospital you will think you are in a rather nice, if a tad over-the-top, hotel. There is a beautiful art collection, a luxury cinema, an indoor palm tree garden, opera regularly in the atrium, numerous dining choices and occasionally, should one be so inclined, one might purchase a cashmere pashmina from Johnston’s of Elgin or a new set of pearls.

Until such time as these systemic issues i.e. the gaps in processes that lead to time-consuming games of Chinese Whispers, and adequate staffing levels are in place this showcase hospital will remain nothing more than a Potemkin’s Village. For the benefit of Mr Hancock, a Potemkin Village is defined as follows:

A pretentiously showy or imposing façade intended to mask or divert attention from an embarrassing or shabby fact or condition. Prince Potemkin, favourite of Catherine II of Russia, allegedly had villages of cardboard constructed for her visits round the country so she would not see the reality behind the facade.

Where were you Mr Hancock the other night when you allegedly did a night shift? A real ward, on an average night in an over-stretched under-resourced hospital despite its glitzy facade, or on the Potemkin Ward where it looks all shiny but in reality, is a flat-pack illusion hastily put together for the occasion by the PR department?

Time will tell….