"Part excellent part disgusting but through no..."

What I liked

My son had surgery on his knee on 4th January 2013, the surgeon was excellent as were all the staff we met. The nurses on Ward 5 deserve a medal I feel very sad that the NHS puts them in a position where by they have mixed wards of patients with senile dementia and those that don't very unfair its means that they are rushed off their feet chasing the dementia patients, having said that I can honestly say that the treatment they gave to the dementia patients was wonderful I have visited hospitals with special dementia wards and the patients on these special wards were not treated any better and in fact the nurses we saw on Ward 5 were amazing with them. The staff who did my sons after care were really lovely he's a funny eater so one went to fetch him toast, they couldn't do enough for him. To all the staff including the surgeon who worked a very long day he was there at 7.30am and we saw him leave at 7pm you are the best and all deserve a medal.

What could be improved

I really do think post op dementia patients should be on separate wards, one chappie on the same ward as my son with dementia kept going across to another ward again post op and sitting on the bed of a patient who had just had his op, we also saw him bang a table into another dementia patients head although I'm sure he didn't mean it it does make you think, he could have done some real harm. I did speak to some of the staff about this and they tell me its not unusual and they get a lot of dementia patients post op on the wards and they just have to cope- shame on the NHS for putting their staff in such situations. We were lucky we were with our son the whole time and to be honest I do think I would not have left him with two dementia cases on his ward as there's no way he could have moved away if they did decide to sit on his bed. Another chap in the same ward who had been there for a week told me that one of the dementia chap can be violent again a worry.