"Earsham Ward"

My husband was admitted to Earsham Ward following a diagnosis of lung cancer and secondary brain cancer.

My husband's speech had deteriorated at this point and he found it hard to communicate when I wasn’t present. He was also paralysed in his right hand and arm.

When I arrived at visiting time the day after he was admitted, his hand and arm were black and blue from attempts to put his cannula in. He had only had half of his steroid prescription and he was concerned about this. He had been informed by a nurse that the two doses of steroids were too close together. Despite the fact that it had been a doctor and the N & N who had made the prescription and it was very clear on his notes.

I asked the nurse concerned if I could discuss this with them but they were “too busy” and would come back to me. My husband was getting more distraught so I asked to speak to the Ward Manager. I then overheard a conversation between the original nurse and an HCA where they were obviously discussing me and that “she can speak to the ward manager about all of his treatment then”. Eventually the nurse came to see us with his notes, found the prescription and he received his medication. The nurse also informed us that they doubted my husband's outpatients appointment would take place because he was an inpatient. This caused him further unnecessary anxiety as we still thought he had a chance of a longer quality of life.

Also on this ward, my husband was twice fitted with a sheath to minimise his requirement for the bathroom. Twice the sheath was allowed to fill so much that it burst away from his skin and left him lying in his own urine until anybody was able to come to assist him. Five minutes before the shift ended, his sheath was removed and not replaced.

When my husband asked for a commode to try to alleviate his dependency on the nursing staff he was berated by another nurse for not using a bottle as well as the commode. Nobody had told him he had to do that and nobody had provided him with a bottle to do so and he was paralysed down his right hand side.

One evening when I was visiting, my husband had been asking for about 20 minutes for help to get to the bathroom and when I queried this with the nurse I was told it would be “helpful if you could do it yourself” and so I did, willingly. However, the nursing staff had failed to do his pyjama bottoms up after removing the sheath and his pyjama bottoms fell down in front of the other patients. The Sister of the ward told him, that he was lucky he wasn’t on a mixed bay because he would have been “in trouble”. When I had assisted him in the bathroom somebody had parked a bed outside of the bathroom completely blocking our path and I had to call for some time before I could get him back to his bed.

My husband was discharged after 3 days having been told that he could only have 2 radiotherapy treatments and his prognosis was 4 to 6 months.