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Sickening...

Story from nhs.uk

"Sickening..."

About: Lings Bar Hospital

I had a late-afternoon appointment to visit a relative who is currently at the hospital...

The appointment was at 6pm (18/05/22), and I arrived at the hospital entrance in plenty of time. Upon entering the hospital, however, I was rather disturbed to find that there appeared to be no one there..

The reception area was unmanned, and no one ever came after repeatedly pressing the "ring for service" bell. In frustration, I walked the corridors for a good 10 or 15 minutes in an attempt to find someone... anyone.

I genuinely thought that the hospital had been abandoned!

I eventually did find someone; a porter, who, whilst polite, clearly did not wish to be removed from whatever job he was doing to help me with my appointment visit.

And upon eventually entering the ward where my relative was, I found the members of staff to be poorly trained, rude, and somewhat aggressive.

I have never seen anything like this in my life before, and I will never forget this awful awful experience.

What I saw and experienced today was nothing less than sickening in terms of competence and quality of care.

You people frighten me.

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Responses

Response from Dawn Cronin, General Manager, Specialist Nursing, Proactive and Planned Care, Community Health Services 3 years ago
Dawn Cronin
General Manager, Specialist Nursing, Proactive and Planned Care,
Community Health Services

Submitted on 23/05/2022 at 15:27
Published on Care Opinion at 15:35

I am very sorry that describe your recent your experience as sickening and I am very concerned as this is not the service that we wish to deliver or portray.

We are very sorry you were unable to find anyone to assist you at the time of your visit. We are a small community hospital and our reception team are only open Monday - Friday 0800- 1700hrs. Outside of these hours- reception have a sign which tells visitors who to contact should they need assistance. The wards are all accessible off the main corridor and all have working electric doorbells to get the attention of staff to gain entry. Ward doors are kept locked to provide for the safety and security for the patients. Staff may take a short while to answer this as they may be busy caring for patients and ward reception staff finish at 5pm. Staff at present are unable to remotely respond to the doorbell, but the trust is aware and we are waiting for the relevant parts to be delivered to upgrade this system which should speed up staff response as it can be activated from the central ward area. We can appreciate it may be frustrating if you have to wait.

As a community hospital, support staff are usually provided on call outside of core hours and staff are supported by a senior nurse and a manager on call. This is why it would appear that there are few staff around out of hours. The details for the senior nurse are displayed at reception for visitors to contact if needed.

We would like to understand what you observed when visiting the ward, as our teams are usually described as very professional caring and polite reflecting the standards we expect from our team. I am sorry that the experience you describe was not what we would want for visitors to our service.

I would really like to have the opportunity to explore this with you more fully to respond to your individual concerns, so that this can be avoided in the future and would welcome and invite you to contact us on:

0115 969 1300 and ask for Lings Bar Hospital. Monday to Friday 0900-1630

Please ask to speak with myself- Mrs D Cronin General Manager, or Mr D Dalton - Site Manager and we will look into your issues and respond more specifically. Alternatively you could call our Patient Advice and Liaison service on:

el: 0115 993 4542

Email: PALSandComplaints@nottshc.nhs.uk

.

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