"Lack of care for elderly"

My wife was in hospital in Grimsby recently and decided to discharge herself after 8 hours because of the poor level of care she was receiving. She was on Ward C3 medical admissions.

I thought mixed wards were meant to be a thing of the past but she was put in a bed between 2 elderly men who were barely dressed, confused and calling for help during the night. Their bed buzzers were not close enough to them so my wife had to ring hers to get them help. One of the men had a problem with his bowels.

Some nurses came and changed soiled sheets and removed bedpans and then seemed to be distributing patients' food trays without washing their hands. My wife had to call for help for the other patients 5 or 6 times during the night. The staff she met took a while and generally there was no staff presence when there were 6 patients on the bay.

My wife also felt very dehydrated. She asked numerous times for a jug of water but all they provided was half a cup. She had to swallow 8 tablets with only 1 inch of water in the cup. She complained about this and then felt some staff held this against her and took longer to come to help.

A patient near her couldn't reach his breakfast and the nurse took 20 minutes to come when my wife pressed her buzzer. My wife explained he couldn't reach his breakfast but the nurse just commented he was asleep. My wife said he had fallen asleep waiting to get his breakfast. Eventually the person emptying the bin pushed it closer to him so he could eat.

The toilet my wife visited was dirty and the shower room had discarded dressings on the floor. 3 wards at the hospital were closed due to Norovirus. It's hardly surprising given the lack of cleanliness and hand washing she noticed.

I have to say her treatment on A&E was faultless but things deteriorated when she went on the ward. She's now relieved to be continuing her treatment at the Royal Hallamshire. I had wanted her to go there in the first place but because she had had a fall, she had to go to Grimsby.