"Care following a stroke"

Two months ago I had a stroke and I was admitted to hospital. On the outset, the care by nursing staff was absolutely brilliant and my complaint is not about them, but it is about the so called middle management- or middle mismanagement, in my opinion- here. I feel there are so many things wrong. Firstly, there are resourcing issues where you can ring a buzzer because you need to go to the toilet or be transferred from the bed to the chair, and it has taken over an hour and a half for this to happen. And the damage that I’ve suffered in terms of the stroke, 1 of my legs is not working and I am receiving physio for, I have a number of pressure sores and recently I got told I will need surgery for them. On a daily basis I will be waiting for 45 mins to hour and a half for assistance, that’s just unacceptable. To move from the chair to the bed because it is starting to get uncomfortable and when it takes that long and I am very weak and in agony from discomfort and I see that as being absolutely not an issue from staff on call, but is certainly from management who seemingly can’t resource enough staff. Sometimes the staff are doing handover and can’t get to me and that’s fair enough, something they are dealing with medication for other patients and that’s fair enough too, but when it takes an hour and a half for patients to be moved 1 meter because they don’t have enough resources then I feel something there is very very wrong.

Again, with resourcing, one day I needed to have a scan on my liver and I was waiting a whole day with no food because they seemingly couldn't adequately work out what time they are going to do this, and then I didn’t get it done until 4/5 in the afternoon and I had not eaten anything since 8 the previous night.

Recently, a resourcing issue again, I needed to move from my bed to the chair and the nurse came around and said that we can do that in 10 mins, and that’s fine I was happy to wait, but then when 10 minutes passed the nurse came back and said they don’t have anyone to move me so it’s not going to happen. Part of my treatment requires me to sit up in the chair as much as possible and to eat in a seated position. If I can’t do that, then that is severely impacting my recovery.

I said I wanted to speak to the nurse manager and I asked about 3 or 4 times. Just before that of course my wounds needed to be dressed and so I asked to see the wound CNC to check on the status of my wounds and they said they’d be along at a certain time to deal with them. That time came and went, an hour later came and went, they finally turned up around 3 hrs after when they said they would. I felt there was no curtesy, no mention from them that they weren't going to be there at that time and I feel this is bordering on unprofessional and disrespectful.

I finally spoke to the nurse manager who said they would come around at a certain time. This time came and went and when they arrived late there was no notification, no excuse. I’m not interested in excuses and apologies. I deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and if you say you’re going to be here at the certain time then be here or send a message saying you cant. I’ve rejected the nurse unit manager’s attempt to apologise and asked to speak to their boss. I feel this is beyond unprofessional behaviour, I’ve had enough.

I’ve had enough, I really have and when staff at the hospital refuse to talk to me, I do not give a damn about their complaint procedure. It’s an internal hospital process and I feel it is my right to speak to someone if I want to speak to someone in management.

I am into my 3rd month at the hospital. I wanted to be home for the holidays and the head of the rehab unit said my physio is not going well enough to be discharged and I need to do 40 minutes a day. But I was not told this 3 or 4 weeks ago. Why wasn’t I told what my target was? What sort of professionalism is that? They should have told me that a month earlier.

I feel the food is also inedible. I feel the sandwiches are school tuck shop sandwiches and the bread tastes like its 2 days old. The meals on Sunday night for dinner is fish with sweet and sour sauce. Now, poached fish is cooked in a liquid, I feel it should be moist. But, in my opinion, it's shoe leather! Sometimes you can order uber eats and that’s okay, but I don’t want to impose on nursing staff as that’s not fair on me to encroach on the limited resources that already exists.

At the end of the street here across the road there are 20 or 30 very good restaurants that I believe could be supplying food here. Why is that resource not being used. The whole idea of being in hospital is to get better so why are they serving tasteless food that seems to me to be overcooked. I feel it’s not going to help anyone get better.

Communication has been poor and I believe everything that’s happened is because of the absence of management and transparency. They need to be held accountable. I need to be able to have someone come to me and listen to me tell them how their inability to perform in a professional manner is actually affecting me physically and mentally. The sooner I’m out of this place, I feel, the better. Because of the surgery I’m stuck here for god knows how long. I want to be home.