"Rowan Ward"

My daughter was a patient on Rowan Ward for several weeks. Her experience was negative in many ways and there are lots of comments I could make on her behalf about this hospital. Eventually, she was transferred to a PICU ward which she has found, to her surprise, to be a much more positive environment. As a parent, I have noticed that this ward does not have an effective way of looking after patients' belongings. The main activity outside education hours seems to be television. There are TVs in all the bedrooms. My daughter found evenings and weekends very difficult due to lack of activity. The door bell to the ward frustratingly works intermittently. When visiting your child, bring your mobile so you can call when you get there.

Patients are given doughnuts on Fridays as a bedtime snack and sugary snacks such as chocolate and cereal bars before bed on other days. If you havn't brought your children up like this and care about their oral hygene this can be upsetting. The 'family room' on Rowan, where parents visit their children, is a cold, dark, depressing dingy place and makes the situation your child is in seem so much worse. Some of the staff are kind, but give the impression of being overstretched and communication between them parents can be inconsistent.

My daughter said that she saw her consultant for approximately 15 minutes per week during the weekly MDT meeting unless something unusual happened. Health Care Assistants and Nurses are always available to talk to but contacting your child's consultant, social worker and therapists directly can be difficult. It is unusual for calls to be returned.

My daughter has been exposed to a multitude of dangerous behaviours that she previously knew nothing about due to staying in hospital. Despite being constantly supervised by staff, my daughter still managed to leave the ward and act so dangerously that her life could have been at risk. Rather than recover here, my daughter became more ill.