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"Intensive care is amazing, but ward D5 is..."

About: Addenbrooke's Hospital

My father was rushed to Addenbrookes ICU on the 21st of May 2016. The care he received in ICU was amazing and we were sure he'd arrived in the right hospital and that he would receive excellent care. We were wrong, after a few days my dad left ICU and was transferred to Ward G5 which is the hospitals transplant unit. Care was ok here apart from him being left for long periods of time in his own poo! Which caused the development of open sores on his bottom. During his entire stay at the hospital he received dialysis on ward C5, the care here was pretty useless. One day after a nurse had sat next to dad during his 3 hour dialysis session, they turned to me and my sister in law and asked who my father was as they didn't know his name. Fair enough you can't remember everything but I found this very unprofessional as did my sister in law who is a deputy sister in another hospital. My father was transferred after 10 days to the hospitals liver ward D5. This ward and its nursing team are absolutely useless and treated my dad with no respect or dignity and he barely received basic care. After being informed that there was nothing more the hospital could do to save my fathers life he was moved from a 8 bed bay to a side room to supposedly have peace and dignity until his death. He was basically forgotten about once placed in this room, the day before my dad died I visited to find him in pain. When i asked the nursing team if he could have some pain relief we were told he'd have to ask himself, at this point due to confusion my father hardly knew where he was or his own name, so how they thought he's be able to ask for pain relief I will never know! The evening before my father died he was moved from his private room back into a 4 bed bay. We were told the hospital needed this room for an infectious patient. After much protesting as we felt this was not acceptable they moved him at approximately 10pm at night. So much for privacy for my father and the family during his last few hours of life! He died at 4am the next morning. We were called to see if we wanted to see him after his death and had to say are utterly distraught goodbyes to our 56 year old father in front of 3 other patients. We have made a formal complaint against the hospital with PALs and are awaiting the results of an investigation. This is just a brief summary of the treatment he received, there isn't enough room to inform you of all the disgusting details of the awful care he received those last few days of his life on ward D5. All I can say is if you don't want to be a nurse them why do it? He wasn't treated with any care or compassion and the whole nursing team made it quite obvious that they didn't want to be there! Rather than answering the constant bells from distressed patients they preferred to sit at the nurses station on their mobile phones! I wouldn't let ward D5 look after a gold fish let alone a human being! Ward D5 you should be ashamed of yourselves!!

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Responses

Response from Addenbrooke's Hospital 7 years ago
Addenbrooke's Hospital
Submitted on 22/07/2016 at 10:39
Published on nhs.uk on 23/07/2016 at 02:30


Thank you for taking the time to tell us about the care provided for your late father.

I am very sorry to learn of your concerns and offer my sympathies to you on your very sad loss.

The care you describe does not meet the standards we aspire to achieve and please be assured that we will provide a full response to the complaint which we have received. Senior staff have already been made aware of the issues and an investigation is underway.

Once again, I am sorry to hear that your father had such a poor experience when on Ward D5.

Complaints and PALS Manager

pals@addenbrookes.nhs.uk

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