"Being able to go home, unlike ..."

What I liked

Being able to go home, unlike some of the poorly patients. Patients were left for hours unattended while staff chatted about their nights out, family and holidays. One gentleman complained numerous times about being in pain; after four hours his wife went to the local shop and purchased pain killers!

What could be improved

Communication and increased staff moral. Better quality food will assist in the healing process! A majority of patients had relatives bring in food for them. The food I witnessed being given to patients looked like it came from 'the past its sell by date' aisle from the supermarket. A good deep clean inbetween the bedspaces / washing cubicle curtains would help. There was blood on the bathfloor which was still their the next time I visted!

Anything else?

Staff treated visitors like they were an inconvenience, a mother with a young disabled & blind child was told to leave a general ward because he used 'echo location'; staff thought he was making far too much noise ... he only wanted to visit his grandad. As a lead professional in Social care I was disgusted at the discriminatory & oppressive practice I witnessed.

If I needed to be admitted ... I would have pay to go private.