"Some staff professional and courteous. ..."

What I liked

Some staff professional and courteous. Efforts made on pain managment. A really difficult job often done to high standards.

What could be improved

Mixed with patients with dementia the ward felt like a nursing home, no sleep, howling all night. Toilets often filthy and not checked. Broken toilet seat for 2 days - not what you need with crutches! Inconsistent approach to pain relief - depended on mood of nurse and whether they liked you. Understaffed and staff as a rule had my sympathy. No efforts made to make stay less unpleasent. Minimal day room facilites. Patients frequently ignored and requests forgotten - I was one of the luckier ones as I could get about but many bed bound patients left to try to sleep with main lights left on til 12 glaring away and no privacy.

Anything else?

So easy to do better - more social worker involvement. Regular treatment with ice packs. Standardise pain relief. Dim lights to allow some sleep. Reduce reliance of patients to look after each other. Get it clean - often stank of stale urine and nearly fell over on puddles throughout stay.