"Our stay so far"

Staff attitude

Nurses

Treatment

Doctor

Care staff

Our journey was a huge whirlwind with an unplanned emergency section. I cannot state enough how nice and supportive the staff have been. We have been in now for nearly 3 weeks and they have supported us at every turn.

Explanations

  

All our questions have been answered and the support provided through this difficult time has made our very difficult journey more manageable.

 We have noted a few things that could be improved.

Manager

The only negative thing to say about staff is there was a manager during our stay that made male partners feel very unwelcome.  I was approached and told I could not get food for my partner as I would intimate vulnerable women. Now, my partner had been through an emergency c section and was not able to get food so I went into the kitchen to get some for her - no one else was there.  On another occasion I heard the ward manager  lecturing another male partner who has stayed in the room with his partner who had a premature baby for walking around the corridor. This approach is not patient focused or support of partners who are vulnerable in unfamiliar circumstances and surroundings.  

Environment

Daily living support

It has been amazing that bottled water and snacks are provided for parents and siblings, however what has become apparent that over weekends and bank holidays these run out on a Friday night  and then it can be Tuesday until they are stocked up. This may seem a petty thing to comment on however when there is no water cooler and you are in a room with 4 incubators that is so hot for 10 hours you need access to chilled water. The snacks are a bonus but they have helped us through long nights and days to keep us going.

The special care rooms are amazingly decorated but they are missing vital stimulation on the ceiling for the little ones to look at. They spend a large proportion of they time looking up on blank white ceiling tiles.  It would not even need to be many 1 or 2 tiles per space would be a huge bonus and not very costly. A competition run for siblings could be run to help design them and it would get the siblings involved and make them feel part of the family journey.

Heating

The room we were in is so hot that it has a huge impact on parents and staff alike, this reinforced the lack of water  over the weekends and bank holidays.