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Poor experience on Wharncliffe ward at Rotherham General

Posted By downpatient

"Poor experience on Wharncliffe ward at Rotherham General"

About: Rotherham Hospital / Older people's healthcare

(as the patient),

My mother collapsed and went into Rotherham General. She was on Wards B1 and A1. Then she was transferred to Wharncliffe Ward. Wards A1 and B1 were excellent, the care she received and staff were all good. However, it was a totally different story on Wharncliffe. She found the ward very poor. It was incredibly loud, with other patients shouting, but they refused to let her move somewhere quieter. My mother had tests, but they didn't give us the results. I asked everyday for a week. They just kept us waiting.

My mother was constipated all week. We kept telling them and they gave her some medicine for it. But then they said they couldn't do any more tests because she was constipated and hadn't told anyone! We had been telling them all week!

I understand that they were busy on the ward, but there was no need for the rudeness we experienced. My mother is not a difficult woman, but she was made to feel as though she were being awkward! She was treated like a second class citizen.

On discharging her the hospital weren't helpful. We were left to care for her. But they didn't set up the Nomad system properly. Now a week later we still haven't had a discharge letter and she is running out of medication!

My mother is due to go back into hospital soon, but she feels afraid to.

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Responses

Response from Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust 16 years ago
Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 14/08/2007 at 12:47

The Medicine for the Elderly Clinical Service Unit at Rotherham General Hospital is very sorry that concerns have been posted with regard to a recent hospital stay on one of its Care of the Elderly wards.

It is always our intention to keep patients fully and their families appropriately informed about the treatment they can expect and how that is progressing during a hospital admission. We would also expect staff to communicate this in a sensitive and timely manner.

We are sorry we were not able to meet the request for a quieter bed. We have to allocate beds to make sure we minimise the risk of infections, and make sure the patient who are more severely ill are close to the nursing station or equipment that they require. This means that patients do not always stay in their preferred bed.

All patients prior to discharge should receive a discharge letter, a copy of which is sent to the patients GP. We are sorry if on this occasion this was not the case, and we will work with the ward to investigate why a patient would leave the hospital without the discharge letter.

If a Nomad system is in place, arrangements are made with the GP and local pharmacy for the medication to be supplied as it was prior to the patient’s stay in hospital.

Without specific details it is difficult for the ward to investigate fully, however we will work with them to review the process for setting up the Nomad system to prevent this happening again.

Should whoever posted the message of concern wish to contact the Medicine for the Elderly Unit, we would be happy to discuss in more detail.

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