"Traumatic experience in the extreme"

Hazel Unit, Callington's PICU, is a horrid place to be. I was fortunately transferred out after about a week but the facility and staff treatment is extremely dehumanizing. To begin with, for reasons passing understanding patients aren't allowed their phones on them. They are permitted electronic devices like mp3 players, creating an unnecessary financial burden on patients - many of whom are obviously of limited means already. This lack of access to the outside world is extremely isolating, what with there being no books available anywhere on site and needing to ask staff everytime you want to change a channel. It's virtually a prison, with staff body frisking you everytime you enter the facility in the public lobby, which is pretty humiliating. What's more, HCA staff are virtually never available. They sit behind this large office where you can see their computer screens - surfing the internet, making eBay bids, etc. But if you ask for a 1on1, you are always told to wait and 9in10 times they simply don't even get back to you. In addition, you are given NO introduction to how things work when arriving apart from them being able to sell you NHS-produced eCigs. Finally, the beds don't have proper frames like the Acute ward, instead being simply too mattresses stacked on top of each other. This results in an awful experience for the patient as they will sink in after a few days. The place gets extremely cold at night with no discernible heating. Fortunately, the doctors there were friendly if passive, not presenting a treatment plan or anything. And while this too could apply to the nurses, it's clear that the wear and tear of being on a ward with such troublesome patients on a regular basis has left the staff jaded, distant and arguably dazed. The Agency HCAs were much more proactive and friendly and maybe more rotation on this front is required. Because regular 'bank' staff were as impersonal as a train ticket collector.