"What I witnessed on this ward"

I have never left a negative review.

I watched a loved one pass over in a traumatic way, but that was not what gave me trauma. This was in ward 9 at Noble's Hospital.

The person I love most in this world was put in this ward. We kept trying to get her back home but they told us that we could not do that because they needed a doctor to check her over first… this took five weeks.

This we accepted because we did six hour visits daily. The loved one had dementia. Myself and my aunt are qualified in caring in a medical field for dementia patients, so we could come and visit more often than other patients' families, but they then decided that we should not visit as much despite us feeding, changing our loved one and staying out of sight so the staff could work.

What I witnessed on this ward:

A patient with not very good mobility asking the nurse to help her, then I watched the staff member turn their back and walk the other way so the lady used her walking device to follow the nurse who walked away from her. The patient was so polite and as I had seen this happening and wanted to ask the staff member a question anyway, before I asked it I told them that there is a patient behind them that has walked from the other side side of the ward to ask them a question. The staff member said they knew this - but would answer when they had finished what they needed to do.

A patient asking for help whilst a group of staff chit-chatted, then the patient started crying because he was bed-bound and in discomfort. It was only when they saw my face that they stopped talking and went to attend to him. 

A frail patient with early stage dementia kept asking to go for the toilet and did not want to use the pads that had been given (toilet pads that patients can wear in the underwear). The staff told her to just use the pad. The patient was embarrassed and asked if she could go by herself as the toilet, as it was close to her bed, and the staff stated she could not. This lady was left desperate and embarrassed waiting for 20 minutes before a staff member huffed and took the patient to the loo. The staff members did not assist with anything on the way to the toilet so the lady could have gone by herself - however I could understand why they would want to take the patient. That was until I saw them put the patient in the toilet, come out, close the door and leave them for 20 minutes alone on that toilet. If you heard the embarrassed sobs that I heard, you would be horrified. 

I found out that my loved one had not been eating and we asked to be made aware of that and five weeks in a nurse slipped up and told us that my love one missed meals a lot. My loved one stuck in this ward who cried every visit for us to take her home had not eaten yet it was not listed anywhere.

I observed other patients who suffered from dementia wandering around the ward unstable in their walking. They had been seen by staff but they just cracked on chatting till I found one of the patients in the wrong room, distressed, and another patient screaming abuse. I shouted for help which made the staff stop talking and help this distressed patient to bed - but she was popped right back in the bed with no words said to her or to calm her down.

These are only a few things I witnessed and perhaps I am biased due to working in the medical field myself, but seeing this happening to people and how scared, confused and embarrassed these patients were literally keeps me awake at night because I knew that we had to leave my loved one in there.

My belief is that she deteriorated absolutely because of being in that ward. I also understand that that type of job is unbelievably hard but if you stay in that role you must ensure you are doing your best because you are looking after people's loved ones.

We ended up losing my loved one and it was horrific, but thankfully we got out into short stay ward before that and the Nurses there were pure joy and care. My family and I are eternally grateful for the staff on that ward because they looked after the whole family as well as our loved ones.

My PTSD came from seeing ward 9 in action, knowing that it would continue after we left, and wondering if they behaved that way when we visited, what is it like when no one else is there.