"Varying levels of care"

I was in Dr Grays Hospital for total abdominal hysterectomy with bilateral salpingo oopherectomy. During my stay in the hospital I received varying levels of care.

I was advised by my surgeon after I returned to ward that I would get injections and stockings to prevent blood clotting. I was keen to have this as my dad had passed away from a thrombosis clot that lead to a heart attack. I asked about this after the surgeon left around teatime and the nurse said they would look into it. They never came back so I asked again at 10pm. The nurse came back and put the stockings on my table and left. I could not put them on myself as I had a C-section type wound. I asked an auxiliary if they could at least put the stockings on and they said they had to check with the nurse on duty. They never returned.

I buzzed for some water as I didn’t have any and no one came. I left it about an hour and buzzed again and the least enthusiast person came and took my water jug away and returned about 40 mins later. There was no communication with this person whatsoever which was pretty poor.

Around 3am I asked the nurse again about the injections and getting my stockings on and again this never happened.

In the morning nurse Hannah came on duty. I asked her about the injections and stockings. She put on my stockings there and then. She went and checked my file and said I should have had the injections but now the time had passed to get it and I had to wait until that evening to get it and apologised for the error. She ensured I had them that evening.

During this shift and the ones following, it was apparent she was flat out caring for patients, ensuring they were getting the care they required. She was beyond excellent at her job and genuinely cared for all the patients. She was always very professional, caring and compassionate but at the same time rushing about trying to do all the jobs and in my observations doing more than her fair share.

I observed lots of staff who were less than enthusiastic in their position, casually walking about chatting to other staff.

I am writing this review to praise Nurse Hannah and hope she hears about how wonderful she was and her care was second to none. Shame other could not learn from her and hope she does not get discouraged at others lack of enthusiasm and professionalism. I would imagine nursing would be quite a challenging career but even more so when the team do not work together.