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"great surgeon but the staff couldnt care less"

About: Russells Hall Hospital

I had to have 2 surgeries in this hospital 1 in 2012 (keyhole) then 1 in 2013 open major surgery. my surgeon is a fantastic man and wonderful consultant. The care he gave on both occasions was second to none. The ward staff were unsympathetic and quite mean to some of the patients especially the older ones. After my open surgery although I felt unwell and was on a catheter they discharged me about 19 hours later with 5 days of meds and a 5 day sick note and told me my gp had to carry on the rest because it costs too much! in 2012 when I came out of surgery they went to put me in a bed covered in someone elses blood! I said that's not mine the nurse said oh I suppose we will need to change it then I asked if it was my blood would she have put me in the bed she said yes it wouldn't have mattered if it was yours. There was also someone else's blood on my nurses call button. When I pressed said button they wouldn't come, I needed the toilet but wasn't allowed to get out of bed and it took 4 hours, yes 4 hours to bring me a bedpan you can imagine what happened. In 2013 I also heard a dr telling the patient in the next bed, quite rudely and harsh when she was on her own, your cancers back and if we don't operate you will die, the woman was very upset and said she needed to call her husband the dr said hurry up then cause ive boked you a surgery slot and i'll lose it if you refuse to go! in 2012 a student dr wearing a vest and sunglasses chewing gum asked if I was well enough to go home, I had some fluid on my kidney and was in terrible pain and I said no. she came back with a letter saying take this to your GP your being discharged. I got home and opened the letter and she had written patient says she feels well and want to go home! needless to say a couple of hours later my temperature went to 39 degrees and I became delirious and had to be re admitted as I had caught a nasty infection probably because they missed a days worth of my meds and antibiotics. 2013 experience was a bit better than 2012 but that hospital terrifies me because they really seem not to care about you and when your already feeling vulnerable its horrible to feel like that. The ward staff need to have more people skills

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Responses

Response from Russells Hall Hospital 10 years ago
Russells Hall Hospital
Submitted on 22/04/2014 at 18:05
Published on nhs.uk on 23/04/2014 at 04:00


Thank you for taking the time to let us know about your experience of our hospital. It is wonderful to hear that you have been so impressed by the consultant in charge of your care over the past few years. We expect all our staff to uphold the trust values of care, respect and responsibility at all times and with all our patients, so we are very concerned to hear you found our nursing staff to be uncaring. We are sorry that it took us so long to respond to your call bell and would like to apologise for the discomfort this must have caused you. Making sure call bells are answered in a reasonable time is now one of our main priorities and we survey patients to make sure we have done this. We are also currently piloting a maximum 30 second response to call bells in surgery. You have raised a number of issues that we would like to look into further as part of our ongoing commitment to improving patient experience. It is, however, difficult to comment on your specific experience without reviewing your medical notes. The matron for this area is happy to meet with you to discuss the problems you have mentioned. If you would like to arrange a meeting with her please contact her secretary on (01384) 456111 extension 2664. If you prefer, you can instead contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) on 0800 073 0510 who will be happy to look into your concerns on your behalf.

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