Blindness

My name is Aftab Siddiqui. I am 65 years old. I am visually impaired and registered blind as well. I have many other disabilities. I'm also probably with my legs. I also have a stent in my heart somewhere down there. And I have a kidney transplant as well. So I have a lot of experience going into the hospital. Yeah, and it's difficult for people like me to get around. I try my best to go by myself sometimes, But you have to cling on to the walls to get there somewhere. Well my patient experience is that, as I've said, mentioned before, I've been to the hospital quite a lot of times. The experience I've had is at night time when you're admitted in the hospital. And that's the worst experience I've had is that you're lying in your bed and there's no, well there's a buzzer there, but there's no, somehow some nurses, I'm sorry to say but some nurses put their buzzers away somewhere else, you know, above you so you can't reach it, can't even see it, up there somewhere. So we don't disturb them. And that is really, you know, horrible situation. You have to scream and shout, excuse me, excuse me, nurse, nurse, nurse. That's one of the experiences I've had, you know. The unexpected side of it is that, that when you're, because I'm a transport patient as well, when you're a transport patient, somebody should help you to go into the car or into the van. But nine or 10 times, not many people do. They just say, come along, let's go. And then you have to get into the car itself. You can't find the steps to get yourself up, you know, get yourself levered, go into the seat. That's the kind of thing I've had experience of in the hospital. Well, I would like to tell other people who are going to the hospital is to ask their rights, which is, I've just heard, called passport. Passport from the NHS. I think it's quite good, because that will tell you exactly what is your right in the hospital and how you can avail those rights.