"Improvements needed"

My mother was on Rochester East Ward in January 2014. Even though the attitudes of some of the nurses and Health care assistants were good or satisfactory there were a few individuals who displayed quite negative traits. They would attend to the patients without talking or looking at them, spoke very abruptly and appeared very surly. Occasionally, it took quite a while before a member of staff would respond to the pressing of the patient's bell/alarm. The most worrying thing was that a few times times, on visiting, I would find the bell/alarm placed out of reach of my mother (who would have been unable to get it if needed). Almost all of the patients had catheters for urinating. I got the impression that this was done mostly for the convenience of the staff rather than patients' needs (otherwise staff would be needing to change incontinent pads, or having to help patients to the toilet or commode). There was a feel of under-staffing. I would like to praise the occupational therapists and their assistants on their care and attention. However, there did seem to be quite a large turn-over of particular professionals.