"Understaffed ward"

I was an in-patient on Pembroke Ward and on the whole the care was good. However, there was a definite lack of staff. The nurses were stretched to the limit and there was no time to talk to the nurses as they were just so busy and I felt that I didnt want to buzz for the nurse as I could see how busy they were trying to deal with all the patients. There was one lady who had a knee replacement who was brought to the ward in the early evening and immediately she told staff she was in a lot of pain. This went on all night with her being so unwell and in a great deal of pain and she was telling the staff this but they did nothing.

The next morning another member of staff took over on the next shift and she was disgusted that this lady was left in so much pain overnight and that nothing was sorted out for her. She should have been referred onto the pain clinic. It turned out that this lady had an infection in her wound. I found that the patients that were able to get around were trying to assist other patients as the nurses were so stretched.

The food in the hospital was awful too which was certainly a good topic of conversation amongst the patients but really not any good for nutrition of patients recovering from major surgery.