Disgusting hospital

[Furyfurious]

I was discharged from hospital this week following surgery and a 5 night stay at an NHS hospital. I am absolutely traumatised. What I have seen and been exposed to was totally shocking. I will definitely be looking for a Private health care policy. The Nurses attitudes, patients attitudes poor (not all ) but a shambles. The smell of the ward, the food etc sorry but there needs to be resolution

@Badbadbunny, sadly that doesn't surprise me.
Some years back, DC1 had a life threatening autoimmune disease (very rare, and especially rare in young people). They were on six-monthly infusions of an autoimmune drug, which had to be freshly prepared. The number of times we arrived to be told it hadn't been ordered or it hadn't been prepared.... Fabulous, as the infusion took five hours, but if steroids were also needed, that was another hour on top. Add on the travel time (the hospital wasn't close), and that was the whole day gone, with DC exhausted plus feeling terrible.
We've also had the ridiculous scenario of arriving at say, 2pm to collect medication which had already been ordered in advance (or so we were told) and not leaving until past 8pm.
You and your DH have my sincere sympathies.

Wow- just wow.
You appear to be incredibly blind to what nurses do these days.
Also incredibly insulting. Just who do you think are going to do all those tasks that nurses do if not nurses?
junior doctors do not have the time/ knowledge or skills to do them anymore. Stop trying to pretend that nurses are not skilled professionals. It IS nurses who will keep you alive, whether in a ward/ ITU environment. The doctors will do a lot, but if it wasn’t for the nurses then the morbidity rate climbs exponentially.
Please tell me where you think my place is when I am running a Paediatric resus with my useless APLS qualification or caring for a palliative child.
Your sheer vitriol shows how little you know about what nurses do and shame on you for your attitude.
Oh, and just so you feel good about me being a caring nurse, once again I finished 3 hours late, no break. Does that make you feel better?

Coincidentally my son can only eat blended food aswell, and for that purpose I always bring his food with me and arrange for the nurses to prepare and heat it up which they are happy to do.
I have read lots of these comments and some of them are absolutely correct to complain due to the wrong medication being administered and patience not being allowed to use the toilet and therefore laying on their own mess. But the fact that it smells funny or that you can hear chit chat at night and the food isn’t to your liking isn’t as important as what really matters and that’s the medical treatment that your in there for.

You see to have a real issue with all nurses. Perhaps you have had a bad experience- for that I am sorry. However, bad mouthing an entire profession is absurdly ridiculous so just stop. Perhaps think about the number of patients who do get good care whether NHS or private.
perhaps think about why nurses are burnt out.
perhaps consider the extra roles they are doing when they are running on half staffing levels. Yes- that is what is happening. Half the recommended safe staffing levels. Having nurses pulled from other specialities, who have no idea how that ward works. Sometimes even an agency nurse expected to run that shift.
Stop blaming the nurses and start blaming what has put them in that situation.

There is no point in arguing with mercedesferrari. I’ve got the feeling they have posted rude and inaccurate crap on other threads about nurses under a different user name.
mercedesferrari and their ilk will always turn all hospital/NHS threads into a nurse bashing thread and will never understand the current role of nursing staff. We know what we do and I take pride in my work and know I make a difference everyday I am there.
But of course it’s my fault that the hospital no longer prepares meals on site and has them delivered and the food provided is not to someone’s liking. It’s my fault if the housekeeper hasn’t cleaned the toilet and it’s my fault if the person in the next bed farts a lot and smells. It’s ridiculous really. I’ll be leaving for work in 10 minutes and won’t be home until after my son’s bedtime. I bet mercedesferrari is still snoring and farting in bed somewhere in her stinky hovel.

Unfortunately the most naturally caring of people can be made uncaring by continually requiring them to work in an unsupportive, understaffed, impossible environment and then telling them when they complain about that they just need to care more. I'm afraid although the saying 'don't care can be made to care' is rubbish, it is absolutely true that those whi care can be made to give up on that and just see work shifts as something to survive.

I just spent 7 days in Kings for major surgery including a 2 day stay in a HDU.
I had no concerns prior, all my outpatient appointments had been great with attentive staff. I was asked to come in the night before my op and everything was fine, the staff for the operation were incredible.
I woke up in recovery and straight away I felt like my bladder was going to burst. I told them and they said 'Thats just what a catheter feels like. I kept persisting and they kept fucking gaslighting me that the catheter was fine. I did not relent and eventually, she agreed to flush it and low and behold, there was actually a blockage in it.
Care in HDU overall was excellent, because of the ratio of staff to patient. I was washed and kept clean, vaseline applied to lips etc.
A few days later I was moved into a single room on a ward where again, I was washed but the HCAs had a lazy habit of moving my table out of the way and then never returning it. At one point they washed me but then left the room and closed the door and I was immobile, naked, without reach of the call button or the button to administer my pain relief and I ended up having a panic attack and screaming for help.
I was then moved onto a bay on a ward with two lovely ladies in their 70s and a woman who was sadly very mentally unwell who kept having episodes, which was fucking terrifying at 3am. The room had two windows which looked onto a concrete wall 3 foot away, no natural light, I had to chase relentlessly for the pain relief i was meant to have every two hours but was often left up to 6 without. TMI but no one noticed that I had a small accident and was not clean. I then began to suffer the most agonising pain I have ever felt in my life, like my insides were being burned. Worse than childbirth, Worse than a gallbladder attack. The HCAs snorted at me and walked off. The other two ladies in the ward kept pressing their buzzer to get someone to come to me because i was soon screaming and writhing in pain, and they said 'Pain is to be expected.' Thank christ my mum arrived at that point and demanded at the least a nurse to come and check me.
Laying awake at night, in pain, sweating from the unbearable heat of the hospital and sticking to those fucking plastic beds, the smells, the noise of the patients who were mentally unwell. The toilet that I saw get cleaned ONCE and the mentally unwell lady left her poo smeared nightie on the floor which wasnt noticed for ages. Honestly, I am traumatised.

There were some good eggs, like the nurse who gave me some kind but tough love in getting mobile for my own benefit, The HCAs who comforted me when i missed my child so much,. They were always so apologetic when I asked for pain relief and they said they had chased the nurse over and over.

This is my third traumatic hospital stay (C Section during lockdown, gallbladder infection where I was also left without pain relief). Its scared me so much I want to do everything i can to overhaul my health and avoid ever being in such a vulnerable position again. I have also taken out a private medical cover with work. I hope I never have to go back again.

I also think my feedback to anyone who works in that profession is 'Just because this is normal for you, does not mean this is normal for me.'

Unfortunately, bad care in hospital can lead to trauma. My husbands care has left me that way (coupled with the stress of him dying).

I waited 5 months before complaining, to get my head straight. I wanted to ensure that I'd told the truth, and laid out the sequence of events well.

I took two days to do it, and then I sent a copy to my DD, who had been with me through all this, to check again I'd got it right.

I posted one copy to the head of that hospital, and a copy to PALS - to be honest, I'd sooner not be having to do this - going over it just brings it all back.

I was clear with praising A&E, and the second ward he was on.

It won't do me any good, it won't do my late husband any good, but I'm just hoping someone will get a grip on this ward, and advise the staff with how to treat patients.😗

@Zebedee55 It won't do me any good, it won't do my late husband any good, but I'm just hoping someone will get a grip on this ward, and advise the staff with how to treat patients.

I have no words to express how much I feel for you and what you endured. It was dreadful and it must have taken great courage to eventually say something, being forced to re-live the circumstances. I agree with you that we can only hope that lessons can be learned and that others never have to share a similar experience. Sending you all good wishes. 💐

Usually when I’m admitted to hospital, I am in a state of emergency and I don’t have food with me. It’s completely different caring for yourself when you’re too unwell to function, it’s not the same as being a parent to a child. I’m lucky I have family support, some people have nobody.
Anyway, my point was, when I’m poorly, I need my swallowing re-assessed and to be given the correct diet for how I am at the time. Often, I’ll be assessed but this is not reflected. I was on thickened fluids only and it wasn’t communicated. I was offered a steak! We laughed afterwards. I am grateful I was unwell enough that my family were with me a lot at the time.
The appalling communication should not mean a person with a serious disease with variable swallowing needs gets given unsafe food. Again, what about those people with cognitive impairments who wouldn’t know and need more help?!

@Mercedesferrari what an incredibly awful post- did you get turned down for nursing training or something? Are you an HCA with a vendetta??

That's why we have HCAs - which is equivalent to the old role of an SEN -

The roles have changed- partly to make nursing more attractive for 'some' - but the HCA plays to the abilities of those who like caring but aren't necessarily academic or need more flexibility etc .

I don't know what your issue is but to have a go at all nurses is very unfair

@Solonge I'm afraid I think you have it- I think lots of this is deliberate- get people used to paying £30 a time to phone online for a doctor-up the levels paying for private-

I wouldn't mind but we have incredibly high rates of NI here too- this was originally intended for pensions and health- we will end up line the US and a dog eat dog culture - where healthcare is so drastic because the top people in it expect to be earning 500,000 dollars a year etc - they will charge you 8000 dollars for a bed for a night etc- it's a massive , massive money earner for companies and individuals - losers are 'the population'

If we end up with some kind of private scheme (much of Europe has this) - I presume our NI will be dropping a lot? No- me neither. When we lived in Copenhagen they have high tax but no NI and no council tax , --high pension, good healthcare, high public services

HCA is not the equivalent of a SEN the SEN was still a nurse who could give medication and had a PIN number, a HCA, is a vital member of the team, but they are not nurses.

Thank you. We can but hope. X

Correct

I do not see any 'nurse bashing' posts here in the way that you seem to mean. What I have read is lived experience after lived experience, sharing the most horrific situations of people when they were at their most vulnerable, weak and anxious.

Don't blame patients for exposing bad practice, or sharing horrific experiences - because it certainly is NOT their fault. None of it. The LAST place where people want to be is to be sick in hospital ... the very least of expectations is to be cared for safely, cleanly, with human dignity, kind courtesy and respect.

@Frustratedfatty "But of course it's my fault ..."

I am merely responding to your words above, finding them triggering, and apologise if you have, elsewhere, demonstrated a little understanding for patients - and I've missed it. I've had dreadful treatment at the hands of some nurses and I'm afraid that such a defensive/attacking 'poor me' response is indicative of the wider problem. Of course those things are not your fault. There is much that is wrong on both sides, but you are in a position to raise concerns, escalate concerns, etc, and it's your choice to work where you do, knowing it involves long shifts, and you get paid for it - not so your patients: so it would be good if you could just demonstrate a little more compassion and understanding for those who are in your care and are forced to endure things that make scary situations more challenging than they need to be.

It is my opinion that the NHS is broken and has been for a long while. It's certainly no longer a 'national' service, having been broken up into trusts, commissioning groups, postal code lotteries and the like.

Having looked up the dictionary definitions of 'nurse' and 'vocation' and 'profession', one suggestion could be that one part of any re-forming of a truly national health service, could be to keep the label 'nurse' for those who do see it as vocation to care for the sick and needy. It would be less confusing for patients.

For those currently between 'hca' and 'doctor' and who view their role more as a (technical) profession and do not want to sit holding a hand, mopping a brow, assisting with personal care and ensuring medication is given correctly (with food, or empty tummy, etc) - and which is totally fine, as not everyone is cut out to be a nurse - maybe the label 'healthcare professional' would cover it and would be a more accurate description?

Hi op you should report this to the palS service. Depending on the hospital you attended some have an email.

I'm a nurse at a NHS hospital and believe me I've seen and heard some things

"Poor me"
"Vocation"
Could you be any more patronising?

Do you not realise by carrying on the quaint old notion that a highly skilled, technical job that requires absolute precision and soft skills is a vocation you are doing both nurses and patients a huge disservice?
It's a professional role requiring career long training not a bloody hobby!
It's not 1950

Even something as basic as a meds round means nurses are checking that both the Dr's and pharmacists work is correct plus knowing the side effects, effects and the correct way to administer them safely.
Thats a basic nursing skill
Would you like me to go on about dialysis, chemotherapy, immunotherapy ?
Probably not because you cant grasp that these are highly skilled nursing roles performed daily.

Patients and staff are both the victims of deliberate, sustained Institutionalised neglect, underfunding, under staffing and a blame culture.
Ive put a couple of links for you to read below, I added the BMA one as it gives a first hand account of what happens to someone who is dedicated, hardworking and who tries their utmost to give .

https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/your-wellbeing/insight-and-advice/first-times-in-medicine/burnout

This link describes Moral Injury

https://www.rcn.org.uk/magazines/Bulletin/2021/May/Moral-distress

By 2028 3 times as many staff will have left the NHS.
It's a complete crisis and you, with zero idea are still talking about vocation and brow mopping.
Escalate concerns, if only we had thought of that ...

Completely ignorant and deluded, your comments are beyond belief!

@widowtwankywashroom apologies I worded that incorrectly- you are correct. I enjoyed my stint as a student nurse in the late 80s- and found it a very hard but satisfying job- I didn't continue due to divorce, shifts with young kids and ironically a lack of jobs at the time but I'm sad to see so many have had a poor experience in recent years.

@Ineedtochangemynameforthisone
if you don’t see nurse bashing in this thread then you need to read it again.
Of course some nurses are crap at their jobs and shouldn’t be around vulnerable people but that doesn’t mean ALL nurses are bad at their jobs and don’t get demoralised when these threads always start spouting the usual bollocks.
I think you will find in this thread examples of the usual crap that gets trotted out …. That most nurses weren’t busy on covid must be like the equivalent of a thread descending into discussions of Hitler.
As a nurse who has worked in ICU for nearly 20 years and held the hand of many dying covid patients and cared for them with kindness and empathy then that one just makes me see red.
just because I call out the shit that’s trotted out on mumsnet does not mean that I do not treat my patients with dignity care and respect and if you really think you can judge my 20 year career because of one post on mumsnet then you can go to hell.

There is criticism of nurses on this thread but why shouldn’t people be allowed to share traumatic experiences? Have multiple people said all nurses are bad? If they have - then they’re idiots. I don’t see a lot of that though.

Many of us have raised complaints about wider issues which are not directly due to nursing care. It’s about how the wards are poorly run due to understaffing, lack of communication and poor cleanliness. I don’t blame the nursing staff for many of the issues I have encountered. It’s the system, not the people.

They all need the old style matron who ruled with complete authority.
I've spent a lot of time this year with 2 year old grandson in hosp. I've had to be on the ball constantly, feeds put in the wrong tubes , nurses telling the doctors the wrong medication.
His mum had a seizure on the ward at his bedside and the nurse rang for an ambulance. Then they left the toddler terrified watching mum.
If we had wrote the book you would not believe it.

I'm in Kings at the minute in the neuro department and I can't fault the cleanliness or care. The nurses have all been very kind to me. My bay and the shower were meticulously cleaned before I was admitted / used it.

Don't get me started on Lewisham though because I'd be here all week.

No we don’t. Those were fine in the old days. When you had old style wards, one matron per ward etc. That does and can not happen anymore.
we are not living in the 1950’s anymore. The patient workload has changed dramatically. We have far more elderly, far more babies and thus children and young adults with lifelong conditions surviving due to increasing medical intervention. You can not compare what hospitals are like now to even 20 years ago.
Re the rest of your post- if that is true, then as a Paeds nurse I would be calling the CQC myself. Realistically what would have happened is the nurses would have put out an adult arrest call to the ward and they would not have left her alone but given BLS.