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Poor staff attitude in urology clinic

Posted By DJ1010

"Poor staff attitude in urology clinic"

About: Southmead Hospital / Urology

(as the patient),

I attended the outpatients department and was appalled at the unprofessional behaviour I witnessed.

One member of nursing staff was loud and brash and was almost shouting at a man about his 'bladder cancer treatment' and was almost telling him off as well as letting everyone know what was wrong with him! It was an embarrassing and shocking experience.

Whilst there I also heard this person and another nurse talking about a specimen that had been wrongly labelled with the incorrect patient details. It appeared that they were not sure if the right patient was told they were clear of disease!

When we were called in we were not asked to confirm who we were. We also saw, before our consultation, an elderly man get called in and came out quickly because he was not the right person, the doctor discovered this. The same nurse told him to listen next time!

I felt that we were in a place which was uncaring and potentially lethal. I heard numerous patients complaining about the care and attitude of some of the staff.

We hear about the Stafford hospital disaster. Southmead will be next. Please don't say you have not been warned.

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Responses

Response from Steven Sykes, Advice & Complaints Team Manager, North Bristol NHS Trust 10 years ago
We have made a change
Steven Sykes
Advice & Complaints Team Manager,
North Bristol NHS Trust

Submitted on 20/11/2013 at 16:10
Published on Care Opinion at 19:27

Dear DJ1010 - thank you for taking the time and trouble to post your views of General Surgery at Southmead Hospital.

I agree that the experience you describe is unacceptable and falls well below the professional level that we would want for all our patients irrespective of the department they attend. I cannot comment on why certain actions were taken by staff without being aware of the facts and reasons for raised voices etc. but I very much regret that this caused you concern and upset. It is not acceptable that details of any patient’s care is not kept confidential or that there should be any doubts as to specimen results.

The Trust is mounting an iCARE programme with the specific aim of improving care, communication, etc. to provide the best environment possible to support our patients. All staff will attend and adopt this before the new hospital Brunel Building open’s next May. iCARE stands for:

I am responsible for:

Communication that’s effective

Attitude that’s positive

Respect for patients, carers and colleagues

Environment that’s conducive to care and recovery

You may also wish to be aware that compliments received by the Trust outnumber the complaints by a factor of approximately 10:1

I hope these details give you some reassurance that the Trust is not complacent about patient care and that we are acting positively to achieve on-going improvements through positive steps. We want to ensure that all patients’ experiences are as positive as possible.

Kind regards – Steve Sykes

Advice and Complaints Team

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