"Poor treatment at hergest mental health ward Bangor Hospial north wales "

My partner has been suffering mental health problems due to severe depression which started suddenly in March this year, after approaching GPs, the local mental health team and a drugs and alcohol team, my partner has become so ill he is now suicidal and not responding to the medications that he has been prescribed so far. He finally felt unable to cope and admitted himself to hospital 25 miles away in Bangor Gwynedd namely the Hergest unit. He was recently in there for 4 days before actually being seen by a Dr to be assessed, he was promised every day by he nursing staff that the Dr would come to see him everyday that he was there and it was only after family member raised concerns that he was eventually seen by a Dr.

My other compliant is the general filth of the ward and lack of care given by the so called multi-disciplinary team in there. The ward stinks of urine, the rooms and floors are filthy and clearly not cleaned on a regular basis. One day there was a pool of urine on the floor of one room for the whole 5 hrs. I spent visiting my partner and was still there when I left. The floors are covered in litter and bins are overflowing.

There were sandwiches left out for patients to help themselves in the coffee/tea room, these were 2 days out of date and covered in mould. The individual room that my partner had for 1 night of his stay before going to a shared room, was dirty with coffee stains all over the radiator, drawers falling apart and a broken wardrobe.

There is little in the form of recreation for the patients and most spend hours sat in the garden smoking and talking to the pigeons (seriously), not once did myself or my partner witness any member of staff outside with the patients. The wards are also of mixed gender which seems to add to the lack of privacy but I suppose is not a real major compliant but something unexpected in light of the fact many of the patients there seem to have little self control due to the nature of their illnesses.

The staff all seem to hide away in the office and in 4 days the only thing they said to my partner was " do you want anything to eat" how can they possibly be assessing anyone through walls and by not engaging with people. The whole place was a let down and my partner felt worse in there, these people are highly vulnerable and this level of care is totally unacceptable, the staff should be ashamed of their ward and themselves! !