"Lack of basic care and communication"

My spouse was recently admitted to the Prince of Wales Hospital and stayed on level 6 after being transferred from the emergency room. Unfortunately, several serious issues occurred during their stay that we feel need to be addressed.

The most concerning incident was that their intravenous antibiotics were stopped without any explanation, only a day and a half after being started. We had no idea who made that decision or why it was done, and no information was given to us. It wasn’t until my spouse began showing signs of fever again that we insisted on checking with the nurses, who then had to call the in-house doctor. As a result of this lapse, the infection that had started to improve got worse again, and they had to stay in the hospital longer than expected. It was incredibly disappointing to see this kind of treatment in such a critical matter.

On top of that, my spouse was apparently completely forgotten for over 12 hours (from 8 in the morning until 8 at night). No one came to check their blood pressure, despite their high blood pressure diagnosis. My spouse's temperature wasn’t monitored either, and we had to ask at night for it to be checked. That’s when we discovered they had a fever. No one checked on their pain levels or general condition. The lack of communication and attention was, in my opinion, unacceptable, especially for someone being treated for an active infection.

Another issue was around food and nutrition. The surgeon had told us at 8:30 in the morning that my spouse should start having solid food again, but no breakfast was brought to them. When lunch still hadn’t arrived by nearly 2:50 in the afternoon, we had to ask what was happening. We asked the first time around 1:50. It finally came more than an hour later. Dinner was served around 5:30, which meant my spouse went from 2:50 lunch to 5:30 dinner. I believe this is completely inappropriate timing for someone reintroducing solid food after illness.

My spouse was also never offered towels to take a shower, which might seem like a small detail but only added to the sense of being forgotten and overlooked.

During the time my spouse was on antibiotics, the IV machine kept beeping and the nurses often took a long time to come and administer the next dose. On one occasion, after waiting more than 15 minutes, we pressed the call button and the nurse seemed annoyed that we had done so. It was incredibly frustrating to feel like we were bothering staff simply for requesting basic care.

I do want to say that the night shift nurses in general were lovely, very kind and caring. In particular, Chris was amazing and really made us feel supported. However, I believe the serious problems around medication and basic patient care need to be acknowledged and addressed.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I apologise for the length of this message, but we felt it was important to express just how distressing the experience was.