"langham ward stay - 5* to nursing staff!!"

Anything else?

My husband was admitted to Langham ward recently due to a mystery infection. After spending a night with other ill patients the blood tests showed he was neutropenic & moved him into a room on his own as his immunity was so low. Unfortunately this room was the only one with an en-suite but this was out of use! The previous resident had smashed it about and put it out of action! The nursing staff were faultless and very helpful but it was very worrying that the 3 days that he was in this room he still had to use the bathroom facilities with the rest of the ward! On the final morning just before he was dismissed, a plumber came in & told him that he had repaired the en-suite & it could be used. We had to take some photo's of this room as it was a joke! There was unknown debris (sick?) around the toilet and walls, part of the wall was pulled off & leaning up against the window and bits of toilet paper all over the floor! A spider had made a nice big home in one corner of the window with plenty of dead flies to eat! No cleaning of this en-suite had been done since the previous resident & this is on a renal ward where some very ill patients are. Although the nursing staff are not to blame - it's a shame that more money isn't spent on getting things like this repaired as soon as this happens! either that or charge the patient that spoilt it! I also felt very unable to get suitable answers from the Drs who made us feel that we were making too much of a fuss. Thankfully we have private medical insurance and will be taking this further to get the answers that they wouldn't give. My husband was also totally disgusted with the food - it really was 50p a meal & it showed. Most of the time I took food & drink up there for him as he just couldn't face it. I would just like to say 'wake up Colchester hospital - you could get rid of your very low rating as a hospital just by making a few simple upgrades' Well done the nursing staff on the ward - shame about the 'cutbacks' that mean that this hospital is looking more and more like something in the '3rd world!'