A lot is being said at the moment about the NHS and Andy Burnham.
Below is an email I sent to the PA of my MP at the time on NHS issues:
Sent: 13 March 2010
16:34
To: BENNISON, Andy
Subject: Re: Andy Burnham
To: BENNISON, Andy
Subject: Re: Andy Burnham
Hi
Andy
As discussed at
meeting with David and Andy Burnham
The points I have to
raise with regards to my hospital treatment which Andy has asked that David
write to him direct about are as follows:
Lack of nursing
care, especially at night, when bed side alarms where not answered for at times
half an hour.
The concern with
that is that when I was returned to bed after surgery, I was not given my alarm
which was positioned on my left hand side and out of reach and ended up asking
another patient to press theirs for me.
Because I required
the nurse during the day for pain which was treated with morpheme and was in
turn given my alarm after it I didn't need it at night but could have had the
need very easily.
Prior to getting the alarm when I
was feeling sick and I ended up having to struggle out of bed and use the ward
toilet to be sick in. (My arm was paralyzed at the
time).
Also and while not an alarm
pressing issue I was having to drink water direct from a jug because I could
not manage to pour it and nobody was around to do it for
me.
I also overheard a
nurse state that she hadn't had time to fill any bedside paperwork in so was
doing the full shifts next day.
The bedding was
dirty.
I also must raise,
at Andy's request, the issue of the significant amount of equipment left on or
on standby that was not being used.
I would also like to take the
opportunity to mention broken entertainment equipment (TV/Radio) whose service
was subscribed to but unable to be used.
The solution to deal with this was
a) not have the service as was the case of the patient opposite me b) Switch the
handset with a current empty bed which was done in my case but only after
figuring out that the handset was faulty.
Most of the issues
seemed to be very much about staffing levels and when a nurse was present they
were always helpful but the issues, especially about the bedside alarms which
patients in the ward prior to my attendance said was a regular thing, need to be
addressed.
Regards
Andy
The
email was sent to Andy (the PA) at the behest of Andy Burnham who I
spoke to face to face, raising the same subjects at the MP's campaign
launch.
