"Great care for me but have concerns about the care..."

What I liked

On the care I personally received in the 5 days I spent in Newham hospital I have no complaints what so ever. I was seen by some amazing, dedicated and caring staff. This is certainly not to say the place is perfect and there is certainly room for improvement in several areas.

What could be improved

I was not bed bound and therefore did not require a high level of daily care. Watching the attention paid to those that were was on occasion frustrating and I found myself helping others at times when I thought nurses should have been doing so.

Communication was a general complaint on the ward with information generally being on the vague side. I witnessed an elderly patient moved to another ward with no notice which he found very distressing, pee bottles placed to the left handside of a man who was paralyzed on his left hand side which led to him to wet himself, a man sat in a chair all day (who wanted to be in bed) because he was told the physio team would attend him which they never did and many, many questions being left unanswered.

Skills wise only an agency nurse caused me concern. Their level of communication was very limited and they seemed unfamiliar with how to operate much of the equipment which was obvious to everyone in the ward and me when they unplugged the wrong tube and covered my arm in blood.

Attention to the little things would also help nurses help patients and themselves for example moving tables back in to position after attending a patient therefore saving the patient from pushing their buzzer and the nurse returning. After my first night on the ward perhaps I wasn't that impressed but over further nights when I saw what a difficult and challenging job nursing is I had a better appreciation of what the job involves and the time pressures they are under. Staff who had been efficient but perhaps did not appear particularly caring at first showed a different and more caring side when they had more time available with the patients.