"A tale of two halves"

It really is a tale of two halves

I was admitted onto the gastro and liver unit with a serious infection and during my time on the ward as with anywhere there were positives and negatives.

On the extremely positive side the unit now has a very strong, positive, kind and dynamic unit manager in Kelly who maintained a visible presence on the ward and often would pop into each bay, talk with each patient and ask if they had any concerns or needed anything, the same is to be said of Venn who did the same. Their attitude was such a refreshing change and should be implemented across every ward. This is a huge improvement from when I was last on the unit over 14 months ago. To see such a visible presence is reassuring and it makes you feel like you can approach them at any time.

Care wise, with the bed pressures and staffing recruitment difficulties staff did the best they could to manage with the resources they had but its like firefighting, as it just takes one unforeseen problem to have a serious knock-on effect to other patients. The vast majority of staff were kind, caring, friendly and helpful and several should be recognised such as Eva, Zina and Sharon. Mary deserves a real thankyou and is a credit to the ward. Her work ethic is second to none and the unit are lucky to have her and she does not get the credit she deserves. Nothing was too much trouble and her kindness and compassion shown to me whilst I was a patient was second to none especially when I was going through a very difficult patch. Kulumbo, Janette and Effran also deserve a special mention for the help and care that they gave me whilst I was a patient. 

At night staff are stretched to the limit dependent on the types of patients that they have in the bays and call bells often couldn't be answered in what you would consider timely. You almost need a runner just to check on bells ringing to quickly assess and prioritise care/treatment with nursing night staff. This would improve patient experience and allay any fears etc that some patients have. I found it incredibly frustrating trying to get pain relief and other medication at night because it has to be double signed and waiting over an hour on occasions is not acceptable or fair to patients. 

There was however sometimes a stark contrast between full-time RCHT employed ward staff and the working practices/experience of agency staff, and this needs reviewing and levelling up to improve the care experiences of patients and that of the gastro unit further.

In my case line dressings went unchanged and unchecked even though i brought the matter up on at least four occasions over the course of a number of days.. specialist central line dressings went unchanged for 15 days when they should be changed weekly and post surgical dressings were not managed as they should have been even though there are care plans for each patient that should prevent this.

Regarding the administering of medication from ward stock needs reviewing as on several occasions essential medication was missed or very late because the ward had run out of stock and the person using the last of the stock had failed to re-order supplies. There needs to be a safety net built in to ensure that this does not happen. However blame does not lay solely at the ward as the pharmacy often failed to send up ordered medication and staff had to spend considerable time chasing pharmacy for items when they could be caring and treating patients.

One serious problem that needs addressing ASAP is the standard of cleanliness in the wards, bathrooms and toilets, which was very poor/disgusting and on occasions non-existent throughout my admission. For example, I notified a member of staff that someone had obviously had diarrhoea and it was on the toilet basin and floor and 8 hours later it was still there. The cleaners mopping the floors in the wards did the central corridors and walkways in the wards but never went under the bed spaces so any attempt at infection control by the staff was seriously compromised and during my admission both norovirus and c-diff was prevalent and spread on the ward causing the entire ward to be closed to visitors for several days at one point and close to the end of my admission when norovirus had returned a second time I caught the norovirus bug despite every cleaning product I had with me trying not to pick up germs and being hyper-vigilant at keeping myself and my bedspace clean. In addition the water the cleaners used to mop the floors in the wards was often filthy which compromises the ward staffs efforts at infection control.