"Sunderland Royal Orthopaedics - good hip operation, poor nursing"

Having recently being a patient at the Sunderland Royal Hospital my eyes were opened considerably to the lack of communication and essence of care.

The morning after Hip Replacement Surgery I was given my towel, toiletries, nightwear and a bowl of water then informed by the nurse she would be back when I'd finished. As it was too soon after surgery to get out of bed, using my upper body strength and in extreme pain on movement I washed and changed myself with great difficulty. An overhead hoist for the first 48 hours would have been most beneficial as the added weight of my swollen legs and pain on movement made it extremely difficult to get on and off a bedpan and to eat and drink.

I later discovered straws on the trolley, which could have been offered. Just where was the empathy of the staff? Have they ever tried to eat, drink or use a bedpan lying horizontal! Added to this the time it took to call, ask, get, use and have a bedpan removed took a long time and was quite distressing because of the pain you had.

Once up and out of bed I found the nearest toilet block to me disgusting. The shower there was used to store walking frames of the two toilets there, only one was fitted with a commode which was ancient and difficult to manoeuvre, twice I found a pool of urine on the floor. This explained the terrible smell that was always there. Having said that, I did find and used a much cleaner and commode friendly toilet nearby.

During my stay I witnessed amongst other things a patient who was being taken in the wheelchair for a shower, the staff left a soiled kylie on the floor and the patient in the wheelchair had her lower body exposed for all to see as she was wheeled to the shower, so much for her dignity!

Communication also seemed to be lacking, one example of this was during one visiting time, three nurses in turn came to take my blood pressure.

Finally the one thing I can say is, I have nothing but praise about my actual hip operation and I very much appreciate the excellent work of the doctors, nurses and other staff involved.

I hope this makes a difference,

Lil