"Never again!"

What I liked

It is very difficult to find anything i liked during my 4 week stay. There were few examples of good practice. On one ward, I was welcomed to the ward. The portering staff were very helpful. Some nursing staff were helpful kind and receptive.

What could be improved

Communication

Communication between dr and nursing staff needs to improve. There is a delay of 4-8 hours from dr making a decision to nursing staff being able to implement it. This is too long when that decision involves change of drug regime. If the decision involves departments outside the ward, the standard period of delay is at least 24 hours.

Communication between staff and patient needs to improve - it is sad when th patient finds out information about their treatment from the nurses handover!

Management of wards

Poor ward management meant that there were times when the ward was understaffed - one one night there were insuficient trained staff to deal with the particular needs of patients. It is unacceptable that this should happen, but even more unacceptable that the patients are told that this has happened!

Ward management needs to pay attention to staffing levels and skill levels of staff. De-skilling CSWs has resulted in a palpable low morale among nurses, this has resulted in delays in patients receiving care.

Patients were observed regularly having to wait over an hour for pain relief. In one case, over 6 hours for a glass of water! (and yes, water was allowed).

Patients' call buttons were not answered for over 5-8 minutes. For elderly patients this meant the indignity of fouling themselves while waiting for a commode.

Inflexible visiting times. One visitor was observed coming to the ward at the wrond time (to see a patient who had recently been moved from HDU, where the visiting times are different) The visitor, who had travelled specifically to the hospital, was turned away and told to return in 3 hours. The visitor had not been informed of the change of ward.

Food

The menu does not change! The menu does not cater for specific needs of patients - try to find anything on that menu to sut a sloppy diet!

Anything else?

I was very unhappy with my stay and would not recommend this hospital to anyone. It has deteriorated since my last visit 2 years ago.

Whereas those who regularly interface with patients seem to try their best (although this is patchy), there seems to be a feeling that the management of the hospital is cost cutting at the expense of patients. It is time for the managers to get down to the shop floor and talk to patients. And then to consider if they would like to be treated that way!