"Great surgery /shame about the ward"

Anything else?

My father had surgery for oesophageal cancer in oct 12 and returned to the hospital due to complications over dec and January inpatient.

The surgeon and his team were good and so was oncology but the care on all the wards he used was affected by lack of staff .staff stated this many times to us over the periods he was in the hospital even telling us to complain! I think they did try to some extent especially the auxiliaries but it seemed the higher up they were the less they cared! After the first operation my father was discharged without the necessary care plan and I had to be very assertive to get the appropriate discharge second time around.coordination between departments was poor .discharge both times took for ever literally hours waiting for medication to be delivered from pharmacy.

On trying to complain gently or reason with senior nursing staff we were often fobbed off and it's very difficult when you know you are leaving your father with them !

On the plus side ITU staff were brilliant everywhere was relatively clean and ward admin helpful.

I feel you need to move everything up a notch on the wards and it could be a good hospital!