"Benfleet Ward"

My partner was admitted to Benfleet Ward after being transferred from The Royal London Hospital (an excellent hospital) with a fractured C2 (broken neck). She was admitted on a Friday afternoon and saw a doctor that evening. She then did not see another doctor until the following Wednesday despite us asking on a number occasions why she was not seen.

My partner was prescribed 2 powerful pain relief drugs which required that 2 senior nurses had to ok there release as they are controlled. On many occasions it took far to long the administer these drugs as 2 nurses were not available to authorise them. It is totally unacceptable that a patient in a good deal of pain has to wait an hour, and in one case two hours for pain relief.

Benfleet Ward is ment to be a stroke unit but during my partners time there it seemed it was being used by some general medical patients.

The main problem on this ward seems to be the lack of nursing staff. The ward should have at least 5 qualified nurses on duty at any one time but on one occasion there were only 2 and very often only 3. Hence when a nurse or nurses are on a break or attending to a patient important drugs cannot be administered.

I did complain to PALS and the Complaints Team and whilst they did respond promptly this only lead to a short term solution to the immediate problem not a long term one.

Whilst most of the staff on the ward seemed very good there was a significant number who seemed incapable of doing there job to an acceptable standard.

I do not want to just criticise the hospital as some departments, in particular the physios and the doctors my partner saw were very good. However the overwhelming feeling is this ward and possibly the hospital as a whole is not fit for purpose. I suspect that it needs a substantial injection of funds and most importantly more qualified staff.