"Ward 9a Southmead 'new' hospital. Observations by..."

Dear Visitor – thank you for taking the time and trouble to post your experience of the new hospital. As you observe we recognise that the settling-in process is still continuing and the services as a whole have still to fully adjust to the new environment. This was an expected consequence of effectively moving two hospitals into a brand new building, and asking staff to abandon local processes and practices developed over many years, and a huge amount of planning was undertaken ahead of the move to deal with the expected issues. It is the unexpected and unforeseen issues that are now being worked through and I apologise for any concerns which have resulted. The project as a whole represented one of the biggest patient centred changes undertaken within the NHS in recent years. Please be assured that all the staff, at all levels within the organisation, are working hard to resolve the remaining issues, which have included for example automatic doors not opening, or staying open for long enough, and robotic deliveries and collections to individual wards not operating as planned. These unexpected infrastructure issues have inevitably impacted on wards ability to deliver seamless patient care and I am sorry that you have witnessed that sometimes the care and communication from staff has not been of the exceptional standards we expect. Please be assured the examples I have used have now been rectified. Additionally all staff are attending mandatory iCARE training to help them understand the service from the patient/visitor perspective and so deliver improved communication and be more responsive. I cannot comment specifically on the some of the issues you have raised, but I can say that any patient who has bed-rails in place will have been subject to a falls risk assessment and the rails will be in use for their own safety. It is also the case that patients’ weight is carefully monitored if there are concerns about their eating and a food chart is kept; where necessary, extra supplements will be used to maintain patient nutrition levels. Provision of TV services was not a cost effective option for the current NHS providers due to the prevalence of tablet devises used by the public. Free Wi-Fi is now accessible for all inpatients, out-patients and those receiving dialysis. All Brunel wards and the renal dialysis area have received Wi-Fi instruction cards that can be handed to the patient to help them log on to the system. We are also looking at providing tablet rental to patients without their own devices. Staffing levels on wards are carefully monitored and have to be reported on. Although due to unexpected staff absence some posts are not able to be covered, because our “bank staff” or as a last resort agency nurses are not available this is the exception and careful planning is underway to ensure the incidence of unfilled posts are reduced. I am sorry if your perception is that this is a widespread problem, but please be assured this is not the case. I was pleased that in general you found staff to be doing a good job. Unfortunately the Trust does have a limited NHS budget, but working within this I wish to assure you that the executive team are committed to providing the correct levels of support to ensure that the services delivered quick match the high quality environment. Your comments will be fed back to the managers concerned. Kind Regards – Steve Sykes Advice and Complaints Team