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good staff are in the minority at ntgh

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"good staff are in the minority at ntgh"

About: North Tyneside General Hospital

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This is an honest review based on my overall experience of several different wards and departments at ntgh as a patient and when visiting close family and friends. The first thing that is clear to me is i have personally had more bad experiences with staff than good ones. I would particularly highlight poor standard of patient care in gynaecology, ward 15 and ward 2. Although it is unfair to tar everyone with the same brush the bad out way the good. Not mentioning anyone by name or job title but to give an example, after experiencing 3 elderly relatives enter this hospital needing fairly basic care in each and every case their condition has worsened after admission and they died. I was actually told by a staff nurse on ward 2 once a patient was admitted over the age of 80 the staff 'didnt want to know' and they are 'past saving' these comments shocked and devastated me. A very recent experience which again shocked me was on ward 15, i had to educate a healthcare assistant what a pressure sore was after i had identified one on my relatives leg after the staff should have been dealing with her legs on a daily basis. Another negative experience on this ward was again with a healthcare when i asked her to please change my relatives bed as she had been lying in it (soaked) since the morning (it was now.4pm) and the staff member shouted at me that she was busy and that was not her job. I reported this matter to the ward sister but recieved no feedback. Without going into too much detail i was very unwell so went to a and e at ntgh the nurse who first assesed me actually laughed at me when i explained what was wrong and said she couldnt believe i had came to a and e for that reason. So embarassed i left without being seen by a doctor however the following day i was admitted to ntgh seriously unwell when that nurse had dismissed me. Cleanlieness of the hospital is generally ok but i would note i have found some departments untidy eg boxes lying on floor prime trip hazards etc. Also i witnessed a small amount of blood being left on the floor for two days in ward 23. Overall i feel there is a lack of good quality patient care and 99% of the staff i have encountered do not seem to have any willingness to be helpful or caring or indeed have a great deal of knowledge which is the three basic things i would expect when in a hospital.

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Responses

Response from North Tyneside General Hospital 10 years ago
North Tyneside General Hospital

Submitted on 17/06/2013 at 11:49
Published on nhs.uk on 18/06/2013 at 08:37

Dear Madam, Firstly, please forgive the delay in responding to your post. I understand that it was accepted by NHS Choices on the 11th of June. As director of patient experience I am registered as a responder for Northumbria Healthcare which manages North Tyneside General Hospital. As such I am usually alerted when a comment goes on the site but unfortunately I was not notified about your concerns at all and another colleague only received an alert from NHS Choices late on Friday. I do apologise. I always aim to respond very quickly to any mail on the website and I feel frustrated when it looks like we just haven’t bothered to respond for a number of days, through no fault of our own. Thank you for sharing your views. It is important feedback for us to receive but I have to admit I was extremely concerned to read the content of your note. The care you describe and quotes from our staff are shocking and difficult to reconcile with our understanding of our teams and the feedback we receive from thousands of patients every year. I don’t want to respond defensively to negative feedback but I have to counter your claim that the majority of our staff are uncaring or unhelpful. As an organisation we take a great deal of time to listen to patients and act on the feedback they provide. We listened to the views of 30,000 people last year – 5000 of these patients were independently interviewed about their care whilst they were still in hospital. They gave us an average score of 99% for respect and dignity, 93% for involvement in decisions about care and treatment and 97% for the quality of the relationships with our doctors and nurses. I don’t believe this would be the case or that we would have been recognised nationally in recent surveys for the quality of inpatient, outpatient and cancer services if the behaviours you describe were commonplace. That said, your experience of wards 2, 15 and gynaecology is very different from this and I’m sorry you have felt so let down by the care received. If our staff have behaved in the way you describe then we would regard this as an extremely serious matter and would want to act immediately to rectify. Unfortunately because your post is anonymous I am prevented from responding in the way I would wish to. Please do get in touch – the story you share is of a very serious nature – you will understand why we would want to know more about the particular circumstances and to interview the staff concerned. My email is annie.laverty@nhct.nhs.uk - I look forwrad to hearing from you. Sincerely, Annie Laverty

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