"Lack of staff = Lack of care"

What I liked

The hard working nurses! They were excellent! Even when they were being yelled at, spat at, and generally abused they never let their spirits drop, When the doctors were speaking jargon the nurses actually explained to me what was going on and were happy to answer any questions. Even though they were never fully or safely staffed, they always worked as a team and were excellent advocates for their patients. They stayed way past their shift for time that they weren't being paid for. A massive credit to the ward.

What could be improved

The amount of staff. I have been admitted onto other EAUs and the lack of staff that are available on Fairfax ward is diabolical. At night it was 1 trained staff to 15 patients...fifteen! And there were 30 patients on ward resulting in 2 trained staff at night. There were also only 2 non trained staff. The influx of patients was constant. The lack of staff decreased the amount of patients care the nurses were available to do and quite frankly made the ward unsafe and dangerous. These EAU's are filled with the sick who are not safe to go home. All it took was for one patient to become more poorly and the nurses would have to concentrate all their efforts on that one person...where does that leave the rest of us? Pain relief was not given adequately and medication was unable to be given on time as there just wasn't enough people to do it! There was a lot of use of the term breach...it was all about the 4 hour rule...never mind that it was 2:30 in the morning..."hand them over as there's going to be a breach in half an hour!" These poor elderly people were being carted around the hospital at ridiculous hours and had no say in it! Not to mention the amount of paperwork these poor nurses have to go through!

Anything else?

The lack of staff ruined my experience at Warwick hospital, I could have stayed at home and got one on one care from my partner. What this establishment needs is less paper pushing managers and more hands on nurses.