"Abysmal care - avoid this place."

I experienced very disjointed communication between the crisis team, the community mental health team, the ‘single point of access service’ and my GP. No one really understood how the other operated.

After admission I had to wait 3 days to be assigned a named nurse and see my own care plan and this only occurred because I asked for it. There were other patients that had never seen their care plan. When I finally did see it, it had been pre-written without me and contained inaccuracies because the contents were from my GP notes.

There was a lack of qualified nurse visibility on the ward – they were almost without exception locked away in their office.

My drug chart was written using my GP notes – no doctor spoke to me when writing it.

Many staff failed to introduce themselves or their role. This was made worse by all the different uniforms being worn including civilian clothes.

Other than the ‘ward round’ there was no other hospital led ‘talk–therapy’. I had to request to see a psychologist but would have expected on an acute ward these therapies were automatic? I had no other formal mental health care except being kept on a ‘suicide watch’.

When I saw the Consultant they appeared rushed and told me I didn’t need to go into any detail about my history as they had read my notes – presumably they meant my GP notes. They didn’t ask me for any history or what my problems were. During the 10 minutes I spent with the consultant I was asked if my medication was suitable and when I thought I would be ready to go home!

Meal times and medication times are ‘protected’ which means patients can’t see family during these times.

A poster stated the ward exercise Gym was available twice a day, every day. The gym remained shut for my entire stay – another patient told me that the gym has been closed for weeks! There is a small garden for patients to walk in but this is closed unless there is a member of staff present in the lounge, which is rare.

There was a ‘daily activities’ board listing what today’s patient activities were. This had not been updated since the previous month. I found the ‘dot-to-dot’ and ‘colouring-in’ boring.

The day before my discharge the staff were aware I would need to leave by 2pm the next day to do the school run. I reminded the staff of this again on discharge day. When the time came for me to leave it appeared as a complete surprise to the staff that I was leaving and would need medication. I was told that my medication would not be ready until 6pm and was asked if I could come back to the hospital to collect it. I live over 1 hour away so it was agreed the crisis team would deliver the medication to me at home that evening.

During the morning on the day before I left, I asked to see the ward manager about my poor care. They finally knocked on my room door at 10.30pm asking to speak to me. I informed them it was not a good time as I was tired. They said they would see me the next day but this didn’t happen.