"Caught hospital acquired infection "

After a 17 hour wait in A&E after being brought in by Ambulance due to Pneumonia I was admitted to a none respiratory ward. This was contrary to a note on my records by the consultant that if I was admitted in the future with breathing issues I should be placed on the respiratory ward.

The ward I was placed on was busy and the individual one to one care by the Doctors and Nurses was exceptional, however, no matter how caring and compassionate they were - they were not specialists in respiratory medicine. My wife emailed the Chief Executive and asked when was I going to be admitted to the respiratory ward as the Doctors had been emailing them daily. We were referred to PALS.

I was on the ward for nearly 3 weeks before being moved to the respiratory ward. Whilst in the hospital I caught 2 hospital acquired pneumonia while being treated for community acquired pneumonia and it being my fourth admission in 12 months for the same thing.

My wife contacted PALS and asked them to see me on the ward I was originally placed on. There was no response but I received a phone call from them later in the week and on asking them to see me on the ward they refused quoting covid restrictions as an excuse. In my view a department which is supposed to represent patients and families should be seeing them face to face and not hiding behind out of date guidance. The whole of the country is unlocked and has been for months. It's a joke and in my view not fit for purpose.

I spent a month on this stay and as I say the individual care and compassion of the medical staff on a one to one basis was good and second to none.

This hospital has a number of failures which could be improved ranging from the poor quality of the food including the times and the way its dished out sometimes interfering with the timing of medication. This also includes items on the menu not being available to patients as the evening meal is often comprised of sandwiches etc. The maintenance department totally ignored fixing the night lighting and call bell system after it was reported. It was like going to sleep in a disco with the flashing lights in the Bay. I also noted there was a lack of a day room and the lack of a television or radio in same on in individual bays on the wards.

In other hospitals when the doctors go on their daily rounds they are usually accompanied by the ward sister or senior nurse who makes notes to be acted upon, such as, for example, xrays etc. I never saw a member of nursing staff with a doctor at the bedside when seeing patients. Nor did I see anyone being told or given the follow up date to be seen in out patients. In addition, why isn't patients medication delivered to the wards on the evening prior to their discharge so that by 10 am they can leave with their medication instead of having to spend the day in the discharge lounge where the is a television but patients are not allowed to see the news because it's too political. This place needs change