"Some of the staff were lovely ..."

What I liked

Some of the staff were lovely but there weren't enough of them.

What could be improved

Where can I start? The wards and corridors were dirty. The patients had 2 stomach bugs during the 14 weeks that I visited. Infections were rife and not dealt with quickly enough. There were not enough staff and therefore many of the patients were kept sedated the whole time so as not be a nuisance. There was nothing to keep the patients' minds active and the physio, which was supposed to be each day, was almost non-existant. If a patient needed extra help we were told they weren't able to have physio due to their mental condition - which was not true in my mother's case. On several occasions we asked for a doctor to see my mother but to do so depended on how many other patients the doctors had to see when they were there or whether the ward she was in was on the right side.

Anything else?

My mother went to Walkergate for Rehab. When she first went in she was able to walk, by the time she came out she couldn't walk at all and needed a hoist. Her mental capacity diminished due to the drugs she was given and because there was no mental stimulation. She, like most of the other patients, was left sitting in a chair all day which defeated the object of her being there. Staff did not check that patients were able to eat by themselves and on many occasions food was left on the floor, under the beds, where it was dropped and could stay there for days. We had to ask for my mother to be bathed / showered on numerous occasions and, in fact, she had one shower in 7 weeks. She suffered from 8 urinary tract infections in the time she was there - we had to tell the staff as they had not noticed. This could have been prevented had patient care and cleanliness been better.