Over the last few months, in another English language daily, there have been at least two letters praising Orthopaedic Ward 2 at Mater Dei Hospital. Unfortunately, for me, my three experiences of that ward have been far from good. Yes compared to St Luke’s, the cleanliness is first class, the food is good and hot and most nurses, carers, cleaners et al do look after their patients extremely well but it only takes one person to ruin it all.
Since 2009, I have been in that ward three times. The first time for a simple biopsy but ended up with a vaginal infection and within a few days I was back at Mater Dei for a three-week stay with septic arthritis. I suffer from rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which is a very painful and degenerative disease of the joints and when, on top of that, you get septic arthritis, the pain is unbearable.
Between the end of September 2011 and the beginning of May 2012, I have been back there twice. First to have a fusion plate inserted in my left hand and now for a knee replacement. In September, I was left in acute pain because the Nursing Officer in charge noticed that there was nothing written on my file to be given painkillers after the operation but with her vast experience she couldn’t even be bothered to get in touch with either my surgeon or his assistant and ask whether I should be given painkillers or not.
Because she didn’t and I was in such great pain, I had to spend an extra day there. When my surgeon came to visit me the following day at lunchtime, he wanted to know why I wasn’t all packed and ready to leave.
In May of this year, after my knee replacement operation I was sent to the ITU because of complications, which I’m sure not everyone who has a replacement operation done is sent there. The 12 hours I spent there were the best I have ever spent in my frequent admissions to hospital. To say that the care is ‘excellent’ is an understatement. They don’t even have buzzers there because a nurse is stationed at the foot of each bed and you hardly have time to moan before she’s next to you asking how she can help. They do not leave you in pain at any time if they can help it.
I would like to really thank Joanne, who was with me most of the time, Claire and Maggie for their excellent care and dedication and all the doctors in the ward.
In the morning, I was transferred to Orthopaedic Ward 2, which is where all the trouble started. That first morning there was a male nursing officer and after insisting with him that I couldn’t stand the pain, a consultant came to see me and I was given Pethidine every four hours. The following morning I wasn’t given any and the same female nursing officer I had in September was there. She told me that I couldn’t have the Pethidine because when I went home I wouldn’t be able to have it and how was I going to cope then?
I tried to explain that besides the pain of the knee replacement, I had an RA flare-up and bursitis at the top of my operated leg (I didn’t know then that it was bursitis but only that the pain there was so bad that I couldn’t turn or sleep on it). This nurse kept saying that all the other patients who had replacements were up and about so I should be doing the same.
Now I would imagine that as she works in an orthopaedic ward she would know something about the pain caused by RA, but for some reason she ignored that and kept telling any doctor who came to my room (in an audible whisper) that I had zero tolerance to pain, in other words I was just making a fuss, which I wasn’t. There’s no fun being in hospital no matter how nice it is and all I wanted was to get better and go home.
To finally get some sort of pain relief, I really had to make a big fuss and even had to get in touch with my surgeon’s assistant myself. Besides being refused Pethidine, which as far as I know should be phased out and not just stopped after one day, I also had a problem from day one with the other painkillers I take for RA. The Prednisolone, which I have been taking since 1991, was given to me at 11am instead of 7am, and since it takes three to four hours to have any effect it was practically useless taking the tablets then; also, the Medonol painkillers I have been taking since 2002 (with no terrible side effects) I was not allowed to take because ‘the hospital doesn’t supply them’ even though I had my own. Instead, I was given paracetamol, which are absolutely useless for that kind of pain, and codeine which I’ve never had before and which really hurt my stomach. For that I was given another tablet that had no effect whatsoever.
Therefore, instead of just two Medonol three times daily, which control much of the pain, I was given four other useless tablets three times daily which not only didn’t control any of the pain but which made my stomach hurt.
I spent a whole week there hardly eating or sleeping because of the acute pain and it has taken me up to now to start getting back on my feet. I am still going for physiotherapy to treat the bursitis and had to spend nearly four weeks in a home until I started eating again and sleeping properly.
Just for the record, when I had my first knee replacement in 2005 at the much maligned St Luke’s Hospital, I was put on a pain control machine for three days after the operation, which I was also on at the ITU but which I was told was not available at Orthopaedic Ward 2. Whether that is true or not I don’t know.
By the way, I didn’t write this to get at Dr Joe Cassar or blame him, because I’m sure that since he became Health Minister he has bent over backwards to make sure patients are treated well. There’s no way that he can possibly know what is going on everywhere, especially if certain nurses put spokes in the wheel so that patients complain. I think it is a pity that because of a very few nurses who do not do their job properly, Mater Dei as a whole is getting a bad name.
Margaret Camilleri-Pace
SLIEMA