My father underwent a serious operation to remove metal (from previous surgery) from his spine and have some spacers placed between vertebrae at North Tees Hospital. He went into surgery in the late morning a few days ago and spent longer in recovery that day than originally planned as he reacted badly to the anaesthetic.
He was released early the next morning, with his wound still bleeding as (I believe) the unit was short staffed. This belief is substantiated by the fact that despite him calling for assistance several times (e.g. for a drink or to go to the toilet) before release, no-one came to help.
His wound continued to bleed over the weekend and the pain was extremely bad as he was given no pain killers to take home, other than those he already had. The bleeding was worrying as we were told this should have stopped and being the Easter weekend, it meant 4 days with no access to healthcare services (other than A&E, but that didn't seem suitable).
It feels like he was released from hospital far too early due to short staffing on the unit and I'm concerned about the quality of care he received whilst there (i.e. no-one helping when needed) and also very limited access to aftercare. If the short staffing was due to holidays around the Easter Holiday, then surely the number of operations handled by that unit should have been reduced to enable them to cope properly with the people they had there.
"I believe my father was released too early due to staff shortages"
About: Stockton-on-Tees Teaching PCT / District nursing Stockton-on-Tees Teaching PCT District nursing University Hospital Of North Tees / Trauma and orthopaedics University Hospital Of North Tees Trauma and orthopaedics TS19 8PE
Posted by G621 (as ),
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