"Overworked staff at the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary"

During a recent lengthy stay in the |royal Albert Edward Infirmary in Wigan, I experienced some very good care and some extremely poor care. In my opinion the nurses who treated me were overworked and they never stopped running from start to finish of theirs shifts. I believe they have far too much paperwork and this can take priority over patient care.

My IV drip was left in for to7 1/2 hours after the drip has run through on almost a nightly basis. I felt that when they have run through it is down to the patient to request them to be capped off; staff very rarely came to check. On requesting them to be capped off that mysterious staff member named "Somebody" never appears to perform the task.

Sleep deprivation is another major issue. Lights are not turned off very often until well after midnight and in two instances porters in the early hours in both cases at 3.30 a.m. were stood in the ward with two way radios blaring away and rattling cot sides, all when patients are trying to sleep. Has the NHS forgotten the benefits of a good nights sleep to patients? It seems so!

Common sense cost nothing to implement. I think that porters should not be allowed into wards after "lights out" with radios turned on. If at all after dark. Is it really necessary?

In another instance at 10.30 at night at I was attached to a sphygmomanometer for blood pressure, the machine was started and the nurse promptly went home leaving me attached to the machine for well over an hour. Other staff members noticed this but none took any action. I left it pumping away to see if anyone would ask but finally gave up and disconnected it myself.

I saw nurses whose shift finishes at 9 pm still on the ward at 1030pm completing paperwork. This is time given by them for which they receive no payment or are granted time in lieu. I believe that this is an inexcusable situation and the management should address the issue soonest. One member of staff who shall remain nameless told me that on admitting a new patient to the ward they frequently had to sign their name with the date and time up to forty-three times. In my opinion this is sheer madness and is bureaucracy gone mad as I don’t think nurses can't treat patients properly because are too busy filling in paperwork.