"Not a happy experience"

I was transferred to Halstead Hospital from a general hospital to recuperate and regain my strength and mobility following illness. I had been told that the hospital provided an intensive course of physiotherapy. After a week, when I had only seen a physiotherapist briefly on two occasions, senior ward staff said that there was no such thing as intensive physiotherapy but that staff worked as a team on patients' mobility.

In my case this consisted of being accompanied, with a walking frame, between my bed and the toilet during the daytime.

From early evening onwards I was put to bed and given a bottle, so opportunities to walk were minimal.

Furthermore, requests for a bottle or visit to the toilet were not answered for a long time as staff were busy elsewhere, resulting in several embarrassing 'accidents'. Staff dealt with me very kindly at these times but the experiences were still unpleasant. I was given injections during my stay which I later discovered were blood anticoagulants, presumably due to my lack of activity. After a week my wife managed to speak directly to the physiotherapist and I was taken to the gym (for the first time) and given some very useful exercise on two consecutive days. Whilst in the general hospital I had been placed on a diet of thickened drinks and pureed food due to heavily congested chest and some difficulty swallowing. However, as I recovered this diet was no longer appropriate, and very unpalatable. As a result I was eating and drinking very little. It was not until my wife managed to contact the SALT team that it was reviewed and withdrawn. Senior ward staff said they had made a referral a week previously but the SALT team had only received contact from the ward a week later. One phone call could have made such a difference. I have to say that individual nurses and catering staff were excellent. As regards entertainment, there was a TV in each room or bay but there were no remote controls so somebody would have to get up on a chair to switch on and anyway it could not be seen by everyone in the bay. One serious concern is the way in which feedback was obtained. On both occasions a nurse came and sat next to me with a questionnaire and asked me questions directly. It was quite intimidating and I found it very difficult to make anything other that positive comments.