"My recent stay in Crosshouse hospital"

I arrived in hospital in December 2017. Toilet area in the single room that I was in, there is no-where to put toiletries. As was the case 30yrs ago when I lost my leg, the staff do not seem to have a lot of knowledge about dealing with a patient with a lower limb missing. Asking me if I was going for a shower when this was impossible for me on my own. I believe it would be beneficial to consult disabled people when designing disabled shower/toilet areas, as every area appears to assume that all disabled people are in a wheelchair.

In the bedroom area : again no shelf to put toiletries. In my view the biggest problem was the flow of water from the tap i.e. there is no control over it. in my room the force of the flow was so strong that the water rebounded out of the sink, onto the floor or the front of the person using it. When I pointed this out to a member of staff, I was told I was lucky because some of the other taps just gave a dribble of water. This doesn't do much for following the "washing of hands" instructions. Another problem is the lack of staff.

Untrained staff answer the "Nurse Call" system, accept the alarm, tell the patient they will inform the duty nurse, then disappear. The patient does not know whether this has been passed on or not, and has to wait for some time before pressing the call again, possibly because the nurse is too busy and under pressure, or the message has not been passed on. 

Although there is a shortage of staff, I observed/heard on numerous occasions, lengthy conversations between staff, usually, but not confined to discussing their children, nights out or holidays. I know it is not possible or even desirable to stop staff talking to each other about day to day matters, but where under staffing is a problem and patients may be suffering unnecessarily, then this should be curtailed.

As a Church going Christian and ordained Elder in the Church of Scotland, I do object to the amount of swearing by staff overheard by me and other patients, especially "Jesus Christ" being used as an expletive. I am quite sure any reference to Mohammed or Allah,would be strongly condemned and quite rightly so.

On the other hand the Doctors, Consultants, and the majority of the nursing staff were excellent at looking after me, but as in any pressure job, there is a need for retraining of some nursing staff in patient care and compassion. There appears to be a lack of communication between staff, especially at the change of shift, as I was asked on more than one occasion if I had received certain treatments which had not been recorded or passed on to the next shift. I was even given a piece of paper and asked to record it myself, which for safety sake, I did. 

Finally, A young person without a uniform, attempted to take bloods. It was too painful, and I had to stop them. Over the last 30 yrs I have had bloods taken on numerous occasions with no problem. They left the room and reported to a more senior person who came in and accused me of refusing to let them take blood. I strongly told them that that was not the case. They said it had been a miscommunication between them. The senior person then took blood from me without a problem. I asked why the first person did not have a uniform on, and was told they had only started that day. My Consultant said they would have a word with the department about this.