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Disorganised care in hospital

Posted By nashirayb98

"Disorganised care in hospital"

About: The Ulster Hospital / General Surgery (Ward 3D)

(as a relative),

My husband had to have emergency operation for a perforated bowel and due to complications remained in hospital for 3 weeks.

My overall experience as a bystander is just that of disorganisation. Different doctors said different things, different nurses said different things. It appeared that some wounds got infected because dressings weren’t changed in time. I heard conflicting stories from different people. I found the management of the entire system to be grossly lacking. There appeared to be plenty of staff but nobody seemed to know what was going on.

On his discharge day my husband sat in the discharge ward for 2.5 hours. When I asked what the hold up was they figured out nothing had been done and the whole process of discharge hadn't yet started. 

I find it unacceptable. I’m from the Netherlands.  There you pay the same amount to your private insurers as we do here to the NHS via our pay. I found there to be  a lack of quality of care and the professionalism from the staff here. I believe it is time for things start to change. No amount of pay increases for staff is going to fix this. Management needs to be tightened and proper systems put in place to track patient progress and keep on top of the critical care that is to be administered. 

Yes my husband was saved, but just because the system is saving lives, it’s no excuse to let the organisation of the health system go to shreds like this seems to be.

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Responses

Response from Conor Campbell, Senior Manager, Assurance and Improvement, South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust 2 years ago
Conor Campbell
Senior Manager, Assurance and Improvement,
South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust

Assurance and improvement

Submitted on 27/12/2021 at 15:38
Published on Care Opinion at 15:38

picture of Conor Campbell

Dear Nashirayb98

Thank you for sharing your story.

I apologise for the elements of your husband’s care journey that should have been better.

I will now alert surgery leadership of the issues that you have raised for their consideration and response in terms of future patients and directly to yourself and your husband.

A follow-up post will be made to you to advise of leadership response.

Again, I apologise to yourself and your husband for the elements of care that should have been better.

Best wishes

Conor

  • {{helpful}} {{helpful == 1 ? "person thinks" : "people think"}} this response is helpful

Update posted by nashirayb98 (a relative)

Thank you.

I do want to say that the staff were all very friendly and caring. It is certainly not feedback to suggest he was badly treated in that way. On the contrary. This is feedback and experience from myself based on communication and the overall running of patient care. I am sure staff struggle with the same.

We eventually sat in discharge ward for 4 hours before we could leave.

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