"Mixed bag, with some care and attention..."

My wife was admitted via A&E and the MAU with ascites and pleural effusion. Started off in the Gastro ward (since diagnosis could have been liver disease) and then moved to Respiratory to deal with the effusion. Diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Discharged after a couple of weeks, came back after 1 week for pleural aspiration, then had first bout of chemo. Day after this, had massive stroke, so spent week and a half in Acute Stroke Unit.

I have summarised as a mixed bag because although there was some excellent care from the senior nurse in Respiratory (who was perfect - said what they were doing, why they were doing it, what would happen next, and was very gentle with the procedures) and from the various HCAs, I didn't feel that the nurses generally were so attentive. In particular, when my wife was bed-bound, her calls for the bedpan were not answered as promptly as I would have expected, especially since urinary urgency was part of her condition. She was also put in the isolation room of the ASU in case of infection, and over the two nights she spent there, had a poor response to her calls, even though she was in a confused state and had been identified as prone to falls. Also, her notes said that she should have been given IPC stockings, but that there weren't any on the ward - may be acceptable on any other ward, but on the ASU?!

All of the wards have impressive-looking TV and radio bedside sets, but only one of the wards had earphones, so the sets were effectively unusable. What is the point of having a TV and radio system but not the means to listen to it? It seems such a simple thing to get right.

I felt that the monitoring of food and drink intake was a bit slapdash. My wife had no appetite so was hardly eating at all, but her notes seemed to show that she was eating, say, half of her food, when she was only taking at most a couple of forkfuls.

A couple of more general points not specific to my wife: i) The information board in the entrance forum should identify the wards by specialty as well as name, eg I was told to go to the Gastro ward, but couldn't see any such ward listed on the board. I needed to be told that Gastro was one of the Avon wards - how would one know that? 2) The blue folder that is given to each in-patient is excellent - a really useful source of information and single place to put all sorts of documents etc. But it's A5 and most documents and letters (eg appointments, discharge letters) are A4. Would be much better if the folder was A4. 3) On a positive note, the follow-up post-stroke care from Pershore has been very good - and their folder is A4 :-)

All in all, a mixed bag because of the sometimes lack of a prompt response to a call for help and the lack of attention to some details that would have made the stay in hospital easier to cope with, but alleviated by some individual excellence and care.