Emergency Patient left waiting 3 hours

When a patient arrives asking for urgent help and attention and is on the brink of suicide do not write on the patients chart 'patient is a little emotional'.

Do not leave the patient that is in serious distress (ie. a breakdown) - sobbing, crying, wailing in a waiting room for three hours to be humiliated.

Mental illness is not taken seriously at this hospital. I was not emotional. I was on the brink of ****ing myself. My family were also in a huge amount of pain and stressed out.

When after three hours you do get a doctor to see the patient, do not put the patient that is about to **** herself in a room alone with scissors and bottles of medication lying around.

Allow the patient dignity. I was placed in a ward with two young men. First of all the rules of the ER is that it is patients only unless there is a child/minor who needs their parents.

These two young men sat watching videos on their phones, used foul language and were joking about asking the doctor to prescribe them dagga. They also made several phone calls to friends which were put on speaker phone (another broken rule) and they again were speaking loudly and swearing.

The highlight was when they heard my distress and started making remarks about me and that I was acting like a 'baby'.

I will NEVER go near Olivedale Netcare again and more than likely stay away from Netcare in any other medical emergency. I am considering legal action for the way that I was treated and will be contacting the press with this story.

I can say that the night that I visited Olivedale Netcare was one of the worst of my life. My psychologist has advised that I report the facility to the HPCSA which I will do.

In the time that I was at the ER there were probably 6 patients in total. Hardly full capacity. To read my chart saying that I was a 'bit emotional' destroyed me. To have other patients insult me while the doctors did nothing was traumatic. I gave a brief history upon my arrival of my 28 year battle from when I was first diagnosed with acute depression.

In the interim I visited a Life Healthcare facility where I was treated with dignity and respect and will be checking into a facility as an inpatient for 21 days treatment. This experienced has only fueled my depression and fears and I have not slept a proper night for the 5 nights since this incident occurred

Thank you for an experience that will haunt me for the rest of my life. Medical staff I feel are called to their profession and are by nature caring, understanding, nurturing and knowledgeable. There was only one nurse whose name I didn't get that actually did something to try and help me and calm down my mother who was after three hours an emotional wreck. .