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"Poor pain relief and cleanliness"

About: Kent & Canterbury Hospital / Urology

(as a relative),

My Husband had a nephrectomy last week.... we arrived at 7. 30 am (as requested) there were 3 needle cases under his bed .... from a previous occupant/ maybe occupants.... and used tissues - he had a 5 hour operation to remove a part of a major organ. when he got back to the (Clarke) ward I was told he would be coming home the next day.... prior to his operation we were told the stay would be 3-5 days. I asked the nurse why he was being sent home so soon in obvious pain... he said because of MRSA risk and they were in 'special measures' he was prescribed paracetamol to take home... totally useless.... I ended up getting medical advice on what to give him for pain from a Consultant friend... also I have to inject him with anti-coagulants each day.... I am not a nurse - I am an Accountant! ! . meanwhile, before leaving Clarke Ward, I helped my Husband to the toilet, there was blood on the side of the toilet, a pool of blood on the floor and splashes up the wall.. This was reported to a member of staff on the ward.... 3 hours later I took my Husband to the same toilet.... the blood etc was still there. It was filthy on that ward, there was no effort to clean anything effectively. I saw a nurse bring clean linen to a patients bed who was being discharged but was still there waiting for his 'papers' so they left the sheets etc on his bed which he sat on... they then made bed when he left without cleaning a thing on the bed and used the sheets that 1.. the previous patient had sat on for an hour and 2, was placed on the floor whilst they stripped the bed when he had finally left the building.

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Responses

Response from Sally Smith, Chief Nurse and Director Of Quality, East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust 7 years ago
Sally Smith
Chief Nurse and Director Of Quality,
East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust
Submitted on 17/09/2016 at 18:36
Published on Care Opinion on 18/09/2016 at 21:11


picture of Sally Smith

Thank you very much for your feedback, especially in such appalling circumstances. I am so sorry that the cleanliness was so poor on Clarke ward. I am very unhappy to hear this and thank you for contacting us. I will certainly be taking this up with the ward and Matron, plus our cleaning contractor.

I would also like to apologise for the poor pain control and advice you received. This is not the standard we expect. Please accept my sincere apologies. In the meantime, I do wish your husband a speedy recovery and I hope he is beginning to feel better.

Sally

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Update posted by sallie2pc (a relative)

Thank you for your reply, I could say so much more about my observations of the cleaning staff..... I questioned the paracetmol for his pain and I was told by nurse (I am assuming he was a nurse) that's all he should need but to take Ibuprofen if he needed anymore pain relief. My medical Consultant friends said that he should not take any aspirin based products as he was being anti-coagulated ! I hope that my Husbands surgery was a success and no further surgery is required, however, if he does I shall insist on using a different hospital.

Response from Sally Smith, Chief Nurse and Director Of Quality, East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust 7 years ago
Sally Smith
Chief Nurse and Director Of Quality,
East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust
Submitted on 19/09/2016 at 17:14
Published on Care Opinion at 17:20


picture of Sally Smith

I am so sorry to hear that - but I do wish him well and hope your husband makes a good recovery. Please accept my apologies for your distressing time. I will indeed follow up on what you have fedback, thank you for taking the trouble.

Best regards

Sally

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Update posted by sallie2pc (a relative)

One final thing Sally, something I find to be offensive, the Hospital claims that it is a smoke free hospital does that include staff not smoking on hospital grounds? as the weather was very warm the door out of the day room was open and staff were smoking on the 'roof' bit and throwing their cigs down a conical roof gutter cover. I would suspect they are still there if you want to have a look.

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