"Disappointing hospital stay"

What I liked

I thought that the nurses and all the ward staff were very caring and did their jobs as well as they could under the circumstances. They tried very hard to make my Dad's stay in hospital as comfortable as possible.

What could be improved

I think that the admissions policy could be improved as my Dad was told to be at the hospital for 7.00am or the operation could be cancelled, yet he had to wait until 2.30 in the afternoon before his operation took place and was then told that he may have a bed when he came back from recovery.

I also think that communication could be improved between the staff and the patients, as my Dad felt that he wasn't told what was going on and when he would be discharged, leading to frustation at the situation, which is difficult enough when you are trying to get well again.He was signed off by the consultant and told by physio that he could go home, but because the physio hadn't signed the relevant papers he had to stay in another day longer. He should have gone home on the friday but because his catherter hadn't been removed either he had to stay in until the monday, affecting both his moral and leading to him feeling quite depressed. My Dad also felt that as he was in a room on his own he was left feeling forgotten, the Doctors or nurses would say that they would be back in five minutes and he wouldn't see them for the rest of the day.

Anything else?

My Dad became quite upset and distressed when he was moved from a ward of 4 people to a room on his own due to a suspected infection at 12.30 am. A nurse said the next morning that this could have waited until the morning. He was also distressed that his catheter was left in for 6 days especially when a nurse said that it should have been removed earlier.