"Poor experience on ward"

My partner was admitted to Ward 68 following a stroke, which has currently left him with a dense left side weakness. The care he received was, on the whole, deplorable. I feel his needs were not met at any point. He was left lying in wet bed sheets for hours on end, having advised staff of his condition. Everything seemed to be a bother and a hardship. Mostly his call buzzer was out of reach and urine bottles mounted up to the point of soaking through the bottle. I had to empty some of them myself to make sure he had empty ones to use.

Staff members were overheard to say they hate their jobs, which, when you're a frightened patient, you really do not want to hear. One junior member of staff, had an awful attitude, they rolled their eyes when asked to assist with anything. Everything appeared to be a bother and this staff member made it clear that we knew it.

There was no Physio input at all, apart from moving my partner from his bed to his chair and when he became so uncomfortable due to previous back surgery, he was made to feel like a nuisance for asking to be returned to his bed. When he asked a nurse, to be moved back to his bed, the reply was, are you being serious? I've got other people to see to! and walked away.

He asked for a bottle in the middle of the night and was told by a staff member that they were too busy. A senior staff member, wasn't willing to accept that the care hadn't been given at the appropriate times as it was detailed in the care charts, despite being told by myself that this was not provided and my partner was left freezing cold and wet in his own urine. He was expected to get on and off bedpans on his own, which was nigh on impossible given the weakness/paralysis he currently had and he was only offered a shower on Day 7 and in between, personal care on one occasion, was given by junior member of staff  after leaving him wet for 3 hours, using green detergent wipes!

One nurse had noted that, in their words, my partner's pulse was 'all over the place' and his BP was sky high. They said they would return to check it again in 10 minutes, but never reappeared and clearly didn't report it to a any other member of staff. This was 1 day post stroke. A staff member came to sort out my partner's medications and I told them that I had found a white tablet on his bedside cabinet, out of reach. This turned out to be his morning BP medication. The member of staff said they would arrange for a stat dose to be given and nobody came.

Another 2 people who were involved with my husbands care came into the room to do a positional change, which we informed them he did not need as he was managing this independently. One of them we found to be very rude when we informed them of this and they turned to the other person and brusquely said to just shut the curtains, effectively to shut me out.

A consultant attended to my partner and asked for him to have a side room as he hadn't slept due to noise levels from other patients. When we informed the senior staff member, of this, they refused to do this even for one night to allow him some much needed sleep.

Although we both feel that his experience of this ward was horrific, we have to mention the fact that some staff went above beyond to make some of his time more comfortable, in particular some of the HCA's and staff nurses were lovely, we can't thank them enough for their care.

My partner is a very proud man and he felt completely stripped of his dignity throughout his stay and was made to feel like a nuisance when all he wanted was basic care to keep him clean, dry and comfortable. This is a snapshot of some of the worst care provided. I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss this in full in order that these issues are dealt with appropriately and no one else has to suffer the way my partner did.