"I was visiting my elderly father and was..."

What could be improved

I was visiting my elderly father and was appalled by the situation there.

He is supposed to be there to recuperate from a hand operation and a heart attack and to receive physiotherapy to get him mobile again. But the tension in the ward is more conducive to having another heart attack.

There is a patient in the bay my father is in who does not give anyone a minute's peace. He doesn't just shout, he wanders around grabbing other patient's things, crashing about and climbing onto their beds. He sat on my father's very tender foot at one point. Naturally, the patients were anxious, upset and exhausted by him and found the only way they can keep him at bay is by shouting at him.

While I was there, a nurse came and bawled from the door at the last patient who had shouted, saying in justification that the cause of the trouble couldn't help it. and they were too busy to be there all the time so he would just have to put up with it.

She then turned around and left without doing anything, leaving the obviously distressed and frightened patient who'd tried to defend himself from the onslaughts of this poor demented creature to handle it alone.

It was obvious from what he was saying that the cause of the trouble was after some kind of stimulation, something to occupy him. , but all they were doing, when they did anything, was put him back to bed.

Of course these patients were shouting. They were defending themselves. They felt vulnerable. It was outrageous of the nurses to come in and simply admonish them from the middle of the room in front of visitors and tell them, when they were already feeling very vulnerable that they weren't even allowed to defend themselves when they, the nurses, were providing no protection.

The nurses were asked if the man could be moved to a side room. They turned this down flat again admonishing the patients for daring to ask.

Anything else?

Another shift came on and a nurse actually took the time to listen to my father's complaint..

There seems to be a culture of disrespect among certain staff on this ward and it is certainly not conducive to healing.