Share review of Ross Hall Hospital - part of Circle Health Group

Ross Hall Hospital - part of Circle Health Group 2021-01-25 Person 2 5 0

I had TKR at Ross Hall in November 2020 spending 4 days as a self-funding patient. In spite of areas of excellence throughout my stay, overall the experience was depressing, disappointing and not what I expected from private care. Pre-admission and admission procedures were carried out efficiently; standard of cleaning throughout the stay was good; quality of food was no more than adequate, but the kitchen staff, along with anaesthetists and physiotherapists, delivered excellent care. My room was a very unattractive, tired space with a miserable outlook onto neglected looking buildings; the one shabby, old chair bore the imprint of posteriors. However, with a couple of exceptions, the overriding negative was the poor standard of nursing care. After surgery I was pressurised to have a catheter fitted even though I made it clear I needed a little more time to see if this could be avoided, which it was. On day 2 I felt very nauseous and was unable to eat anything for 24 hours. The following day this had eased so I anticipated having breakfast. By 9.15am, apart from early morning medication, there was no staff visit, no breakfast or change of water. I rang the kitchen bell and a very apologetic person said she had been told by the nurse that I should not have any food. This was definitely not the case, I heard the heated debate as the catering lady said I had not eaten the day before and she was not prepared to take the blame for the wrong instruction. On day 3 I was advised that a laxative would be given with evening medication. The next day I realised that this was not done and asked the nurse why. She checked notes, said they didn't have any and asked if I had my own, which I had. Her response was "that's fine then just take that". The physiotherapist advised me to use the ice regularly; not once was this offered to me and on requesting the pad I felt it was an imposition, with one nurse commenting that I had used it only a few hours earlier. Sadly, the majority of nurses came over as somewhat unprofessional, even in some cases, sloppy. On arrival home, late at night on day 4, I opened a letter from Ross Hall telling me I had missed an appointment (no previous notification) in Imaging and to contact the hospital which I did the following morning. Another inefficient, frustrating experience. It took several attempts, via other departments and listening to messages of the superb service delivered by BMI Healthcare, to speak to someone in Imaging. When querying the inaccurate assumption of a missed appointment, I was asked if I had an X ray the day after surgery which I confirmed. The response was "oh well that's fine". In summary, it seems that in spite of areas of efficiency throughout the hospital, there is a lack of training, supervision and control necessary to provide a satisfactory experience for patients.