"Exceptionally poor levels of care and welfare."

Anything else?

My father stayed on ward 2 and was in 3 different rooms between 25/12 and 31/12. The staff were in the vast majority of cases uninterested in the welfare of the patients. When I asked how my father was at the desk to his room, the nurse replied ,"I don't know I have just come on duty". Our whole family were encouraged to visit him during his stay to, "help us out". This included outside visiting hours. The wards were so understaffed that emergency buttons were pressed and 17 mins. later nobody had arrived. When I asked for someone to come and see my dad because he had 1) dislodged a cannula and 2) had wet himself it took 14 mins. When nurses arrived the curtains had been drawn and I was trying to help my dad urinate into a bottle. The nurse said, "Carry on if you wish!" I said no and that I did not get paid for doing this. As an T1 diabetic of 35 years I have seen many different hospitals and wards in my time and never have I seen such low rates of staffing and consequently such poor service and stressed staff. The thing that concerned me the most was the urgency the staff seemed to place on trying to get my father out of the hospital, although they had identified the diagnosis of his admittance to hospital. They kept on insisting he could be released the following day even though he had at that point not stood up on his own. When this was tried later that day he needed to be helped by 5 staff as he nearly fell over. This would have been the fourth time during his stay at Pinderfields he had fallen over, although this was the first time someone was with him. My father has been transferred to Pontefract Hospital and the level of care and staffing is so much better. When emergency buttons are pressed staff are there within 20 seconds. The staff are interested in the care and welfare of the patients. I lecture as a T1 Diabetic about the great care and service provided by the NHS Insulin Pump service I get from my local hospital here in the North West. I willingly do this during my spare time. The influence of my father and his community spirit ( 35 years a councillor, school governor, prison governor and magistrate) has something to do with this. I find it hard then to think of how long he might have been lying on the floor in the ward , due to his fall. I realise the staff are stressed however I feel if this account leads to just one patient not having to go through what my father did, then the community interest will have been upheld.