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"Totally dysfunctional"

About: Hexham General Hospital

My father was admitted with lung congestion caused by a deteriorating heart problem. The initial assessment was very good by altocumulus weekend cover who advised that he would need to be admitted for at a week and then evaluated as to whether or not a proposed valve replacement was viable. However, after one day the ward he was admitted to was talking about discharging him the following day whith total disregard to the level of oxygen saturation (improved but not great) and the state of his heart which had led to his admitssion in the first instance. Also the fact that he is very frail, lives on his own and is 82. We asked for him to be kept in and grudgingly they allowed one extra day but then discharged him anyway without having done the cardiac assessment that was promised and surely necessary. The attitude of the ward sister on ward 2 is absolutely shocking in contrast to many of the other staff who we encountered who were very caring and helpful. I will be making a formal complaint about their attitude as it is letting a potentially good hospital down.They need to go back and be retrained or if they are so unhappy in their work that they come across as totally uncaring, they may be better suited to a different role.

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Responses

Response from Hexham General Hospital 9 years ago
Hexham General Hospital
Submitted on 14/04/2015 at 22:36
Published on nhs.uk on 16/04/2015 at 01:02


Dear Sir /Madam, Firstly can I thank you for taking the time to share this review. Unless we hear about the times when patients or families have received care that falls short of their expectations, then we can't really act to change and improve matters as we would like to. I am very sorry that you felt so let down by the care your father received on ward 2 - it is also especially disheartening to hear that any of our staff would appear uncaring and disinterested in their approach. I can appreciate why you would want so much more for your father. It would be helpful to look into this matter further and thank you for your willingness to work with us on this. If you wish to make a formal complaint then please contact our patient services department at the following email address Patient.Services@northumbria-healthcare.nhs.uk In the meantime I will share this review with the team. I am sure, like me, they will feel very disappointed to read it. with thanks again for bringing this to our attention, Annie

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