"Dirtiest hospital I could imagine"

I recently stayed on ward 42. The layout, facilities and equipment of the ward was great. Considering it is a hospital it was a comfortable stay and the environment wasn’t too cramped, there felt like a decent amount of spaces and room on the bays. Also very pleased there were two bathrooms per bay!

During my time I encountered friendly, professional and helpful staff 99% of the time. I don’t think I am allowed to put their names on here but I will be writing into them to thank them personally. These staff made the difference with my recovery. If I didn’t have such a wonderful experience from them; I believe my recovery would have been awkward and slow. Your staff are definitely what you should invest in, as they make your hospital what it is. This was nurses, HCA’s, doctors, consultants and facilities.

My only complaint from the time I spent here was how appalling the cleaning and hygiene was here. During my 11 days, I had to request the shower was cleaned on day 1 so I could use it as it was filthy. It was then only cleaned once more during my stay. In addition, I had to complain 3 days in a row because the toilets were not being cleaned. They were eventually cleaned 1 day and then not again.

Not once during my stay was my table, cupboard, bed controls or buzzer wiped or cleaned by staff. I asked my partner to come in and clean all these things for me.

The windowsills next to me were so thick with dust they had clearly never been cleaned, I also had to do that myself. Also after complaining for two days about the fact the bin lids were never wiped and there was feaces on top of one - we also cleaned this ourselves. There were also several examples of bowls of urine and/or vomit left out. The longest was urine left for just over 7 hours.

I was absolutely horrified at the lack of cleaning. There was definitely enough cleaning staff, but were walking around at a leisurely pace doing as little as possible.

On my third day, I could not believe that they were only mopping the main area and wouldn’t mop by my bed. On this day, the lady in the bed next to me had urine on the floor leaking over to my side of the bay so I insisted that my whole floor was properly mopped. The hca helped the cleaner do it because she didn’t actually clean it up properly. This was the only time during my stay that the area to the sides of my bed were mopped by staff.

Everywhere looks really dirty, you could tell because all the dispensers, sinks, taps and toilet seats were very thick with a build up of dust. I am not exaggerating at how poor this was.

I was thankful that whoever dealt with me or came to speak to me either washed their hands or used the alcohol gel beforehand. But to reside in those conditions was absolutely shocking.