"Mostly terrible"

Anything else?

My elderly father-in-law has just been discharged from St Mary's following a prolonged stay. He had previous stays at this hospital when the intensive care staff in particular were truly amazing. Unfortunately, we saw a very different side of the hospital this time. He was placed in Manvers Ward where we encountered a number of nursing staff who I firmly believe should not be allowed near patients. There is not sufficient space here to go into every detail but the level of care was terrible. My father-in-law is weak and walks with the aid of a zimmer frame. He was allowed to fall while being escorted to the bathroom. He developed infections almost every weekend that resulted in him becoming confused and delusional - a complete contrast to his normal cognitive state. The nurses at the weekend were reluctant to seek treatment for this. The sides of his bed were left down while he was delusional and convinced he could drive home. Worst of all, on several occasions, the infections were not detected until he was seriously ill (despite us, as non-medics, being able to tell he had an infection based on past events). One time, after asking the nurses to have him checked for infections for 4 days, but this not happening, he became so critically ill that the doctors believed he would not survive the night. A high dose of antibiotics was given and he recovered. Some nurses disconnected his alarm buzzer overnight a couple of times which is completely unacceptable. Finally, he was discharged having been constipated for 4 days and MRSA positive. We were not informed about this and I only found out from reading his discharge notes once he was home. I truly hope that no-one else has a similar experience, but unless there are some urgent changes to nursing quality, I suspect this may become more common.