"K&S Hospital - great intensive care but poor aftercare in ward 5"

My Godfather recently had a leg op at Kent & Sussex. His wife was not even told that he was going into surgery. She only found out when she called to find out how he was doing - they informed her that he was still in surgery. As he is 92 he spent two days in the ICU, after the operation. We found the care and cleanliness at the ICU to be of a high standard.

What a shock and what a contrast when we went to visit him in ward 5 after he had been moved from the ICU. It looked like he had been neglected all day he was dirty and smelly and his clothes and toiletries had just been dumped in a pile on a chair next to his bed and they were all wet as if someone had spilt tea over them. His bell had been put out of reach and there was no way for him to call for assistance. When we arrived he was clearly distressed.

Nurses seemed to be understaffed. During our visits we found some of the nurses to be unpleasant, unhelpful and disrespectful to the elderly patients. In one case a nurse was complaining about the job at hand not been her responsibility while also discussing doing a diploma in order to earn double the pay. Her attitude was appalling. Everything seemed like an effort for these nurses and it seems they do the absolute minimum.

Would I want to be treated here at K&S? Not a chance!

No-one should be getting this substandard post-operation treatment.