"Hospital admission to good hope hospital ward 16"

I was admitted to Good Hope Hospital recently for a bowel cancer operation, Firstly I would like to say that the staff on the ward was pleasant and caring.

As someone who works within the NHS, I personally feel that during my hospital stay there were areas of concern which I would like to bring to your attention:

On admission to the ward 16 my named nurse did not introduce herself to me and I was not introduced to my named nurse throughout my hospital stay.

The ward manager did not introduce himself to myself throughout my stay which I feel is very poor, I liased with the other ladies in the 6 bedded unit and they also did not know who the manager was, I feel this was poor practice as I always introduce myself to patients and relatives, meet and greet, Hello my name is, this installs a positive approach to the admission progress which can be a very daunting experience.

I strongly feel your discharge procedure needs attention the waiting for medications and a discharge letter is a very lengthy process, I was informed that I would be discharged home the next day, I had to wait for several hours that day for medications which was only 2 items and a discharge letter, several patients complained to myself about this system as this area is supposed to expediate discharge. Whilst in the discharge lounge there were several patients waiting for transport or medications, one poor lady who had memory deficits was left in this area from the ward she was very confused, attempted to get up on several occasions and nearly fell over, no one was watching this lady, she then was found to have been heavily incontinent of urine which had caused her distress, then a member of staff approached her and told her that she would not be going back to the care home on that day and that she would be returning back to the ward. I really feel this discharge area requires to be discussed, why is there such a long wait and why is there not staff to sit with confused service users offering support and reassurance to allay any fears that they may be experiencing, I did complete a feedback form on the ward to make my concerns known.