"The good and bad of three hospitals"

I have had the experience of visiting The North Tees Hospital, the Croydon Mayday Hospital and Northallerton Friarage Hospital all in the past two weeks and only the third was satisfactory.

A retired friend was in North Tees with a broken arm and leg. She was left so long that when she tried to get to the toilet herself, she collapsed, and was then harshly spoken to by some of the nurses. She was humiliated when left in a pool of urine, while they looked for a mop, before getting her washed and settled back into bed.

The Croydon Mayday confused my relative with another person, by name and on her nursing notes, for the first five days of her stay, despite being asked to change it every day. Consequently, all tests like ECG and MRI had to be done twice, as the first reports went missing. This was distressing for the patient and a waste of NHS cash. Other patients note sheets were left with the magazines, for anyone to read. A patient opposite with both arms immobilised had her lunch dumped in front of her, with no help offered - I was disgusted. The toilets were dirty and nothing was done for hours when it was mentioned to nursing staff. The public toilets on the corridor were clean and signed as checked four times a day, however, the ward toilets had the previous weeks cleaning rota up and had only been signed as cleaned once in the two weeks. Some of the nurses I saw seemed happy to count down the minutes until their shift ended, and read magazines while patients needed care. I had to ask for a mouthwash on behalf of an old lady who had been extremely sick and had no understanding of English. A nurse instead thrust mouth care swabs about into her mouth, with no attempted explanation first and which made her more sick, so just went away without a word! Anti emetics were not given until after mealtimes, and water jugs and glasses were in short supply. If you contact me, I will give a full list of the unacceptable procedures I witnessed. As it is, I am disgusted.

Fortunately, the Friarage hospital, which is small and well managed and has a Matron, is up to scratch and the nursing staff are caring and the Doctors take care to explain treatments and investigations clearly to the patients.