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"northampton general "

About: Northampton General Hospital (Acute)

(as the patient),

I believe a few staff work very hard and have experienced this for myself again recently, the rest seem to be sneaking out to have a smoke, or chatting about broken down cars or their love life, i know it can be stressful but i have a stressful job and i dont need to share it with all and sundry.

It takes hours to get booked in and ever longer to get discharged. There is no choice of menu you get whats left, bearing in mind some people have dietary needs (such as myself- i need high intake of rougage) i got sausages and chips after my operation, hardly what one would want after surgery. where is the heathly 5 portions a day regime? Some staff work hard and earn their money and one of the health care assistant was rushed off her feet from the the minute she arrived and she left. She was always polite, happy and nothing was too much trouble for her.

I think there is still far too much waste on the wards and they are not run effectively. My bed could have been given to another if my discharge had not taken over 3 hours. That would have saved a meal, additional clean bedding, etc. etc. I could go on about concerns but i know from experience they fall on deaf ears, and there will be reasons for all the time delays and lazy staff.

But if i was a powerful person of status i would spend some time on the wards and watch and observe the culture of some staff.

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Responses

Response from Northampton General Hospital 17 years ago
Submitted on 14/12/2006 at 17:26


Thank you for taking the time to send us your comments.

Your comments are interesting and I would like to take this opportunity to inform you of some of the things we are doing to improve patients experience with us.

All staff will be attending a customer care awareness session in the future and we will include your comments as an example of what not to discuss over the patient.

We have a system available for all patients to receive the diet they require if you do not receive your correct menu there is a system to address this immediately.

For this system to be used the patient needs to know about it, and so we are in the process of developing a patient information book which will be beside every bed. The book will include information for patients on how to inform staff of your requirements and how to ensure you get them. This will empower the patient and help staff provide better care.

Waste is something we are trying to avoid and the problems with efficient discharge is an area we are concentrating on. We have a discharge lounge where patients can stay while awaiting their take home medication, your comments have been shown to the ward sisters to encourage them to send as many patients as possible to this area.

Also in December we have been able to increase the number of times that pharmacists attend the ward, which will speed up the process for patients waiting to be discharged.

You may be interested to know that the hospital does have a group of ex-patients who do spend time observing a number of different situations on the wards along with some very senior members of staff. We always welcome new members and appreciate challenging views.

May I assure you that your comments have not fallen on “deaf ears” we take our patients concerns very seriously and do take action.

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