"So very, very short staffed. (Ward 18)"

The poor staff were rushed off their feet, they had few breaks, and to finish the planned work, they truly had to work very hard. I felt very sorry for them all. Whilst I was in, I heard one nurse ask another if she liked the ward, she replied "not really, I don't like care of the elderly". That shocked me, as I am still of working age. When an admission came on, the whole system seemed to break down, with little co-ordination between some staff, I personally think if the "Modern Matron", planned a better organized ward, including obtaining more staff, not only trained nurses - a lot of them are agency, but carers as well. Certainly could be so much better if they had more staff. - There is a national shortage of nurses, but not a national shortage of carers. So, Mr. Modern matron please improve the staffing levels on ward 18, and for goodness sake, try reducing some of the paperwork the staff are expected to do. It's becoming more of an administrative job for those nurses and I'm sure most of them - probably including yourself, went into nursing to care. Most people know the paper work increased to help resolve the risk of litigation, but the risk of litigation is clearly there when care is reduced simply on account of massive amount of paperwork. Come to think of it, the Modern Matron was never seen actually rolling his sleeves up and helping out on the ward - Band 7 surely should be able to work on the ward when the staff are under so much pressure. Don't suppose any of them are on a Band 7. As they say, "nice job if you can get it". I watched one drug round taking 2.5 hours, and in fact, it still didn't finish after than. They are good staff, but they need more numbers on the off duty.