"Recent stay on Ward 17"

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My daughter recently spent a week on Ward 17 at the hospital. Although the Paediatric team were great, unfortunately our overall experience was not very positive. We found the nursing staff were very over worked and there were long waits for drips to be seen to, alarms to be dealt with, meds to be administered etc. The filing sysytem seemed shambolic with notes either incomplete or missing on several occasions. There was a lack of respect for patients with nil by mouth patients being offered meals. We spent 2 days before a partial disgnosis was made. On the Monday I was told categorically by a surgeon that she did not have a cyst and an ultrasound was not warranted. The following day an ultrasound was ordered by our paediatrician which revealed a very large cyst. We were also told at this point that the xray taken the previous day indicated a cyst. We had been told the xray was clear. We spent from early Wednesday morning waiting for surgery which was then cancelled at 10.30pm. Whilst I appreciate that emergencies have to take priority, it appears that there was not enough theatre space and my daughter's case was by no means routine. As a child being treated by an adult speciality (surgery and then gynaecology) we found there was a lack of knowledge of how to deal with young people and parents. Our views were not listened to. This was a marked difference from our treatment by the paediatric staff who thankfully were fantastic at listening which made a huge difference to our outcome. In general there seemed a lack of communication or team work between different medical specialities. I would urge you to take note of these failings to prevent anyone else suffering as we did.