"Nothing - the hospital is very ..."

What I liked

Nothing - the hospital is very old and delapidated looking. Not many toilet facilities for visitors either - at least we couldn't find any!

What could be improved

I think everything could be improved here! I went to visit my Dad yesterday who is very ill with Liver failure, i took with me my four children. After talking to my dad for a few minutes and finding out that an empty drip was still in his arm that should have been taken out an hour earlier, i was already lacking in confidence in the nursing staff. Then a very rude nurse told me that some of us would have to leave the room as there was a two to a bed rule!! I wasn't happy about this as although my children range from teenagers to young adults we didn't drive for two hours from Bristol to be made to stand around in corridors! I wouldn't have minded so much if she'd asked us nicely! I understand rules, but we wern't planning on stopping too long as we didn't want to get in the way, surely she could have been a bit nicer and just told us that as long as we didn't stop too long we would be ok for now. My Dad hates it there and was scared that because the nurse had got annoyed that there was too many of us visiting him (surely it's good for the patients to have lots of family round) that she would be rough and hurt him when she put the next drip in for him! So i was left worrying about his welfare all night! Patients shouldn't be feeling scared of the nursing staff! Believe me my Dad isn't some doddery old man, so to see him scared of her wasn't very nice for us!

My improvements would be to look at their rules of how many to a bed, surely 2 is too few! What about a couple and their two or three young children, do the children really have to stand out in the corridor, all waiting to take it in turns to sit with loved ones! Surely it's much nicer for someone to have their family sat together! Also if that is the rules and they can-not be changed then couldn't the staff just use their commen sence and decency in some cases!It's a shame as my children now don't want to visit again!

Anything else?

More information should be given to patients, one of my Dad's complaints was that no-one tells you anything and that you can wait for hours before someone comes and checks on you! It wasn't that big a ward and seemed to have about 3 or 4 nurses in it, surely they could cope with such a small amount of patients? My dad is very ill and i'm sure this won't be the last time we need to visit him in hospital, but i dread the thought of him having to go back there! We pay NH contributions throughout our lives, and i think we all deserve a bit more from the NHS!