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Care Opinion

My husband's care

Posted By LynnWill

"My husband's care"

About: Southern General Hospital / Accident & Emergency Southern General Hospital / General Surgery

(as a carer),

We have had some real issues with my husband's care at the Southern. In Ward 6, some issues with nursing care, a dirty floor ( yes, absolutely manky - this happened in Ward 4 too. )

Running out of incontinence pads, Ward 4.

In A and E yesterday we had to ask 4 times for a doctor to see my husband who was showing signs of dysreflexia - he is paraplegic, they still didn't appear but sent some pain meds. The quality of care is really hit or miss...simply not good enough. I had to stress the importance of my involvement as a carer in future discharge planning.

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Responses

Response from Niall McGrogan, Head of Patient Experience and Public Involvement, I work for Dr Margaret Maguire, the Director of Nursing, here at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde 9 years ago
Niall McGrogan
Head of Patient Experience and Public Involvement, I work for Dr Margaret Maguire, the Director of Nursing, here at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde,
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde

.Hello – my name is Niall Mc Grogan. I lead a small team in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde that seeks to involve patients and carers in the work of the NHS. We support our colleagues seek and use feedback to help make improvement to services. We also engage with community and voluntary groups to help build relationships with local people and their hospitals. On Patient Opinion, I am supported by Lorna Gray, Project Manager Patient Experience Public Involvement.

Submitted on 21/04/2015 at 16:21
Published on Care Opinion at 16:46

Dear LynnWill

Thank you posting your experiences of care that your husband has had at the Southern General. I am really disappointed to hear about the state of the floor and will copy in Mary Anne Kane, our interim Director of Facilites, so that she is sighted on this issue. We have done a lot of work with public volunteers in monitoring our cleaning standards and this lapse does not meet our standards and is very regrettable.

In relation to the care your husband received, your comment sums I up....this is simply not good enough. For that,please accept my apologies.

If you would be so kind as to contact me with some personal information, I will happily look into this matter further. I can be contacted on niall.mcgrogan@ggc.scot.nhs.uk

Yours sincerely

Niall MGrogan

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Update posted by LynnWill (a carer)

Thanks Niall. Tbh, there have been so many things that we have experienced that we have forgotten some of them. Inflexibility, lack of understanding of my husband's needs - care that, at times, seems utterly shambolic.

I see very pressed and stressed staff - so that is part of it. Action to change culture, listening to patients on an equal basis - not having to DSL with so many different professionals would help. In saying that, we have had some good experiences too... so not all bad.

Response from Niall McGrogan, Head of Patient Experience and Public Involvement, I work for Dr Margaret Maguire, the Director of Nursing, here at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde 9 years ago
Niall McGrogan
Head of Patient Experience and Public Involvement, I work for Dr Margaret Maguire, the Director of Nursing, here at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde,
NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde

.Hello – my name is Niall Mc Grogan. I lead a small team in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde that seeks to involve patients and carers in the work of the NHS. We support our colleagues seek and use feedback to help make improvement to services. We also engage with community and voluntary groups to help build relationships with local people and their hospitals. On Patient Opinion, I am supported by Lorna Gray, Project Manager Patient Experience Public Involvement.

Submitted on 23/04/2015 at 16:05
Published on Care Opinion at 19:58

Dear LynnWill

I had passed on your posting to Mary Anne Kane, who is the interim Director for Nus and Joyce Brown who is our lead Head Nurse. We have been able to take action on your comments regarding the state of the floor and I have included some comments from William Hunter who is the General Manager responsible for facilities at the Southern. These are below. Regarding any issues that arise- and regretfully there appears to have been too many - relating to your husbands care or the support and involvement of you throughout his care - please let staff know. We are encouraging all of our staff to welcome feedback and see it for what it is - really useful insights into how we can better meet the patients and carers's needs. Also please feel free to let me know as well.. I appreciate your observation regarding our staff being busy but we do want to get feedback from all of our patients and where there are lapses in standards or where we fall short of your very legitimate expectations, use these with our staff to try to make improvements for the future. Best wishes Niall

Following your email, Billy visited wards 4 and 6 accompanied by the Domestics Services Manager. They found the overall standard of domestic services to be acceptable but there were two areas that required attention. There were also areas between wards 5 and 6 that had some dried in spillage adjacent to the waste bins. These were being addressed by the Domestic staff. Billy reviewed the results of the cleanliness audits conducted on each ward and noted that over time they achieved satisfactory levels of cleanliness standards on a consistent basis. Billy also informs me that ward floors are mopped twice daily.

Following his adhoc visit to the wards, Billy asked that I pass on the following message to you and to Patient Opinion readers: "It is very disappointing to receive negative comments from LynnWill as the Domestic Services staff strive to provide a consistently high standard of cleanliness throughout all wards and departments. The adhoc inspection that I personally undertook this evening demonstrated that a) the general environment and standard of floor cleanliness was acceptable, b) there were two areas of flooring that required further attention and this was being addressed by Domestic Services staff who were on duty at that time to undertake floor cleaning (amongst other cleaning task and duties) as part of their evening work schedule.

I would like to offer LynnWill and her family my sincere apologies for what appeared to be sub standard levels of floor cleanliness. Domestic Services Management and staff will increase cleanliness monitoring within these wards and also liaise with nursing staff to ensure that local processes are in place to respond to any cleaning request that may be identified once Domestic Services staff finish their shift.

Can I please take this opportunity to assure LynnWill and her family that the comments of concern raised through Patient Opinion will be taken very seriously.

Regards

Billy

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Update posted by LynnWill (a carer)

Thanks for this both. Niall, I will email you separately. I just haven't had time post discharge. I will say this though. In both wards, wiping up water spillage with a tissue, the tissue was black afterwards. More disturbing in Ward 4 where people were recovering from surgery. But I will say that when we mentioned to staff in Ward 4 it was cleaned immediately. There was a very strong and caring culture in Ward 4 and we have to say that staff were lovely, so not all bad!

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