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A&E and stay in medical ward.

Posted By grandmere

"A&E and stay in medical ward."

About: Kent & Canterbury Hospital / Accident and emergency William Harvey Hospital

(as a relative),

My husband was called into A&E following a blood test taken that morning.

This was a very good response.

However after he got settled in we realised that this hospital or at least the medical ward was running ragged with too much work. The nursing was compassionate but very erratic and he had a very bad experience in A&E with a nurse who he felt had a chip on her shoulder. A dressing which should have been done every day was done only three times in the seven days my husband was in the ward. Commodes were left used for quite some time and a dressing gown which I noticed had fallen behind the bed was still on the floor after two days. In the end I managed to pick it up and a nurse said chuck it in the bin.

The general atmosphere was of a crowded slightly grubby erratic ward. He was also discharged without any backup and when I phoned I was told he'd been discharged early so they didn't catch up on it.

Since this episode, my husband has been to A&E in the Kent and Canterbury and during his stay there has found what a really good friendly efficient hospital is like. He is really frightened if he has to go into William Harvey again.

I appreciate that you have a huge number of patients but something is very wrong with the atmosphere

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Responses

Response from Julie Pearce, Chief Nurse + Director of Quality + Operations, East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust 10 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Julie Pearce
Chief Nurse + Director of Quality + Operations,
East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust

I am responsible for quality improvement which includes patient safety and patient experience

Submitted on 20/05/2013 at 23:03
Published on Care Opinion at 23:08

Thank you for taking the time to provide us with feedback and I am sorry that your husband's experience at WHH appeared to fall short of what we would expect.

Please do email me and we will follow this through for you. It sounds from your feedback that the specific ward was under pressure, and I would like to assure myself about the staffing arrangement at the time. My email address is Julie.pearce1@nhs.net

I am pleased that your husband's experience at KCH was positive - I will ensure that staff in ECC at KCH are aware of your feedback.

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