"Visiting my sister"

Anything else?

The location of the ward where my sister was staying in the Charlesworth building (Ward 27) was so difficult to find from the Mossley Rd entrance. I only knew the ward number and found the building from a map in the outer hospital grounds. I found that getting there would have been extremely difficult for anyone with mobility issues and there was nowhere to be able to call for assistance if needed. Once I'd found the building, which was not clearly marked, there were no further maps or signs at all to say which floor and direction any of the actual wards were. After being able to enter another ward without any security checks and wandering around for a while, I had to ask a maintenance engineer for directions.

My sister's room was either too hot or too cold, as the heating was on constantly and we had to open the windows to stay comfortable. The TV did not have a remote and the aerial was dangling down the wall. I sellotaped it in order to get it working. The ward staff had not provided any food for her the previous evening as they had forgotten about her. The food provided one day for a main meal that I observed was a small portion of tinned new potatoes, chicken (couldn't tell what part it was) in an unidentifiable sauce and about a teaspoon of mushy (overcooked to the point of being grey) sliced green beans. It was the only vegetable served for the duration of her stay of 5 days! This was the best meal that she had been offered too - all other portions of food were very small, fried, tinned or rock hard. There was never any fruit offered either. For goodness' sake, people go to hospital when they're ill, offer food that's nutritious and of an adequate amount to help them recover - it really does not cost much. I really feel for those who do not have visitors who are able to bring them food. I have been in other, bigger hospitals, so I know with certainty that this is not impossible!

The visitor's toilet had blood on it when I arrived, staff were aware - when I left 6 hours later it was still there. As we left we had to leave some documents, the nurse told us to leave them on the front desk with bare acknowledgement - not very reassuring. There were no plastic visitor chairs so unless one of the heavy chairs from the patients' day room was available I had to sit on either the bed or on the patient chair.

Care itself was on the whole good, but a couple of members of staff let them down on this front. Based on this experience I would not dream of recommending this hospital to anyone.