"WARD 44"

Anything else?

My mother recently spent a period of time in ward 44 which is located in the geoffrey hodges unit and I have to say I have never known her so unhappy in a ward in all the the time she has spent in various hospitals. Some of the nurses were excellent but there were also some that were very aggressive and showed little patience towards my mother, so much so that I had to report one of the nurses who thought that the way to wake a patient was to dig her in the ribs.

I would also like to raise the fact that on a number of occasions one of the nurses on the night shift thought it was ok to wake my mother up at 3am in the morning pull the sheets back and remove her underwear to check to see if she was wet, I would be astonished if this is normal protocol. Surely patients are entitled to some level of dignity and respect. The other issue which is prevalent in this ward was the lack of information that was passed to next of kin with regards to her ongoing treatment it was like pulling teeth to find out what was happening.

Nurses come round numerous times during the day asking the same questions "are you in pain " "are you comfortable ect and religiously mark down what has been eaten and fluids taken but if this merely becomes a tick list excercise and nothing happens with the information it seems pointless.

For example I had to bring to the attention of the doctor that my mother had not eaten for 3 days and had anyone notified her and the answer was no I asked four seperate nurses to supply my mother with a supplement meal replacement drink but not one of them acted in a positive manner.

A good atmosphere in the ward goes a long way to patient recovery but i'm afraid ward 44 was sadly lacking in this area other than a few nurses who tried their best and who I would like to thank for their professionalism and care during my mother stay