Noise and lighting at hospital so wearing
ALTHOUGH we have a healthy diet, exercise sensibly and control our weight, my wife and I have had to have several operations at Morriston in recent years. We expected, and had, long A&E waits, but once admitted the examinations, tests, X-rays etc were carried out swiftly, efficiently and thoroughly.
However, beware. The usual problem of finding a bed means that you can be taken to a ward which doesn’t deal with your particular complaint. This leads to your “visiting” medical team not always liaising with the ward staff. When my medical staff were associated with the ward, they were generally very good. Also, the insulin intake for my wife and another patient (both Type I diabetics) was changed, against their wishes, causing them to have bad hypos.
1. Ward noise: Awful – all-day TV, usually at no-one’s request and often with no patients watching it; the screeching of heavy bedside chairs being dragged along the floor (the rear legs should be fitted with small wheels); the slamming of locker doors and drawers; the use of old-type rattling trolleys; nurses shouting at patients and other staff some distance away instead of going to them and talking quietly.
2. Lighting: The main lights are too harsh and the bed spotlights are on/ off, on/off at night.
3. Food: Staff agree that the taste of hospital meals is poor. This must lead to a lot of waste and reduced nutrition for patients. Also, why is there a regular “sweet trolley” loaded with unhealthy sugary snacks and drinks?
The combined, wearying effect of the above must mean that patient recovery is slower, directly adding to the well-known shortage of beds. Most of the above could be corrected at minimal expense. Four senior staff nurses admitted that if they were in-patients they couldn’t cope with the above three. Also, on top of constant pain, lack of sleep and treatment (generally good quality, but every couple of hours) made me slip into depression. How many other patients experience this? Depression can lead to dementia.
Two senior staff nurses confided that they couldn’t wait to become part-time, mainly to avoid the constant, inefficient bureaucracy from the (far too many) NHS management staff.
Abertawe BMU Health Board refused to answer similar general points made in my 2016 letter to them, and a copy to our Cabinet Health Secretary resulted in a “no action” response. Gareth Davies Alltwen