The Great Western Hospital

The Great Western Hospital 2020-04-14 Person 5 5 0

This a thank you to Laura Kirby-Deacon, ITU nurse at the Great Western Hospital, who has come up with the idea of knitted or crocheted pairs of hearts to offer comfort to patients and families at this distressing time when people can't be there to say goodbye to their loved ones. Thank you Laura for your beautiful idea and for bringing a little bit of light at this time.

The Great Western Hospital 2020-02-18 Person 5 5 0

Right, I have spent a lot of time in your care over the yrs, collapsed lung,neurology, audiology, ent, day sugery for knee repair and hip replacement. I have always had fantastic care by excellent staff, consultants, nurces, and everyone else in the hospital. I was sent to oxford with my neurology prob. Took 6 mnth to find the prob but they never gave up. Honestly didn't think id make it but I did. Thanks to the great care I was given. Now, ive read reviews and a couple I cant agree with, one Russian gentleman said his treatment in a and e was terrible, acused nurses of racism and demanded they were disciplined. Rubish, I don't believe it, ive never exp anything I can complain about at all. These nurses are the lifeblood of this and other hospitls who do a very difficult job. How can you call an institution which employs a lot of foreign nationals racist. Most of my care was from these people and it was second to none. Another lady says she was left to disconnect all her medical equipment herself. Sorry, unless you know what your doing it cant be done. No nurse would allow that. To finish off, put yourself in a nurses shoes for a minute, see what they see, do what they do and then suffer the abuse they do at w/ends with the drunken idiots who should be made to pay for there treatment. Apreciate the marvellous hospital weve got in Swindon and the brilliant, dedicated staff who work there under very difficult conditions.Thank you all for looking after me all these yrs. Tommy Spencer

The Great Western Hospital 2020-02-03 Person 4 5 0

On Sunday 2nd February, I had to take my wife to A&E with a serious issue that couldn’t wait until Monday to see our GP. Since I was last at GWH, they have created an “ Emergency Treatment Centre” which is a good thing, as it frees up A&E and Doctors for ‘life and death” issues. The Emergency Treatment Centre is run by Practional Nurses with no Doctors there, but as before is woefully understaffed. We arrived at 15.10 in the afternoon and the waiting room was full with a board at the reception desk saying “ wait time 4-5 hours”!!! So nothing has changed! After 1/1/2 hours, we were seen by a Triage Nurse who made notes and took my wife’s blood pressure, but that’s all. After a total of 4 ½ hours she was finally seen by a Practional Nurse who couldn’t diagnose my wife’s medical condition. She said “ Go back into the waiting room and I’ll make a call to a gynaecologist and surgeon for consultation and I’ll call you back in a few minutes. This did not happen and she proceeded to attend to another patient! After another 15 minutes w checked with reception who said ‘she had to take a patient to another department and will be another 20 minutes! After nearly 5 hours wasted time there and a £5.30 car parking charge, we wondered why we bothered!

The Great Western Hospital 2019-12-15 Person 4 5 0

We arrived at A and E at approx 6pm and was seen to access the situation, we waited a further 2 hours we were then sent for a exray a further 2 hours we were seen by a docter who took blood to be tested and tested the heart, we were given a cup of tea and sandwiches, and then waited 3 hours for all the test results to come back all, the time we were there we were being monitored we were very grateful for the treatment we received thankyou

The Great Western Hospital 2019-10-29 Person 5 5 0

Can not recommend this hospital enough. The staff have been outstanding in all departments from consultation to recovery and ward staff. A credit to the NHS.

The Great Western Hospital 2019-09-16 Person 3 5 0

After arriving in the a and e dept approx 4 am in the morning paramedic crew handed over my problems to the sister who didn’t acknowledge me,I was left on a trolley outside cubicles ,nursing staff just walked past me no acknowledgement at all, I wasn’t asked how. I was feeling, no explanation about what was happening, I appreciate the dept can be busy, but just wanted a little how are you feeling, sat on trolley for about 15 minutes when a lovely trained nurse called Andy came and spoke to me, made me feel like I wasn’t wasting time, explained to me everything , then was moved to another cubicle, another staff nurse came in, was ok, awaiting blood results, got offered cup of tea, doctor came in ,very nice. Blood results came back got told all ok,and I could go home. was left to detach myself from ecg machine , there was no I will send in a nurse, what would have been nice would have a been a hello we will be with you shortly. Communication skills need to be picked up on, staff say oh lots agency on, well should not make any difference what so ever,

The Great Western Hospital 2019-08-30 Person 5 5 0

I had a planned c section and the medical staff were all astounding. I was so so impressed by the level of care and support I received. The theatre team were incredible. The facilities on the other hand were not so amazing. We paid £200 for a private maternity room to stay in overnight and there was no changing table which is massively needed considering how sore I was. Also no kettle or anything in the room.

The Great Western Hospital 2019-08-30 Person 5 5 0

Polite and respectful staff. Made me feel at ease and reassured throughout a tricky period. Early pregnancy unit helped me in a difficult time

The Great Western Hospital 2019-08-19 Person 5 5 0

I received my initial appointment very quickly. Hospital information was all very clear. Appointment was handled by all nurses, receptionist, doctors, with extreme care, professionalism and consideration. Hospital is clean, all staff are helpful and considerate. cannot recommend highly enough

The Great Western Hospital 2019-07-27 Person 1 5 0

Hi, I want to leave a complaint about unprofessional, unethical and hate-motivated abusive behaviour of several of A&E staff members, which I've recently experienced. I arrived to A&E department at GWH at 5:15 on Tuesday, 23 July, with piercing acute pain in my right foot. I couldn't sleep the night before because of the pain, and as there were no obvious signs of a trauma like swelling or deformation, and waiting for my surgery to open seemed too long of a wait, I arrived to GWH A&E department. The triage was conducted in some 30 minutes by a nurse (Emma Tailor), who clearly hand no clue about what the condition was - she just looked at my right foot and touched it on the top a couple of times. None of her manipulations were painful, but explaining that it hurts at rest and the pain increases when I step on the front were obviously ignored by her. 45 minutes later I still had not been seen by a doctor or nurse, although I was the only patient in the waiting area. At 6:40 I inquired at the reception and was told that there's one person in the queue ahead of me, and I was about to be seen within the following 30 minutes. At 7:15 the same nurse approached me at told me to go to Urgent Care ward, claiming no X-ray was necessary as there was no trauma. As her inability to assess my condition was aggravated by very visible dislike of the fact that my wife and I were speaking to each other in Russian, i.e. hate-driven, I requested to talk to a senior nurse with an intent to make a complaint. At about 7:45 I spoke to a senior nurse Clare Jenkins, who agreed with my assessment of unprofessional behaviour of her subordinate and promised to discuss it with her at a later time, as she said that nurse Emma Tailor had finished her shift for that day. She also said that I could wait right there for a doctor to finally see me in the A&E ward, without going to Urgent Care ward (as I clearly could barely walk). At approximately 8:10 I was seen by another senior nurse (who refused to identify herself, and didn't have her name badge visible). She performed the same quick look around, barely touching my sore foot, not comparing it with the healthy one, and after consulting with another unidentified colleague of hers, told me to go home, take paracetamol and wait for a couple of weeks before seeing my GP, if things don't improve. She refused to perform any additional checks, in fact failing to diagnose the condition, and also failing to admit it. She didn't even try to mask her dislike of a foreigner - she just wanted me out, probably trying to provoke me for a conflict. Therefore, spending well over 3 hours in the GWH A&E ward after a sleepless night, I, a British citizen and a tax-payer, Wiltshire resident since 2013, had to return home, paying £4.30 for the parking, still in pain and with undiagnosed condition. Now, at 10:55 on that day a nurse at my local surgery in Royal Wootton Bassett after some 10 min conversation and manipulations, diagnosed my condition, provided recommendation for treatment and advised on the next steps. She performed some very basic diagnostic manipulations (e.g. palpation on the toes), which neither two nurses at GWH did, nor an unnamed (if existing at all) consultant to the second nurse, suggested. After two days my condition is improving as I follow the RWB surgery nurse's recommendations, which indirectly confirms her diagnosis, but mainly - improves my overall condition. To summarise: three nurses from GWH Emergency ward - Emma Tailor, Clare Jenkins, and unidentified senior nurse plus an unidentified consultant to the later failed to perform simple diagnostic manipulations, not requiring additional equipment, and hence failed to diagnose an acute condition, potentially leading to a crippling chronic muscular dysfunction. Two of them didn't even try to hide their obvious dislike of a patient with a foreign name and accent, and focused on getting me out of their ward and care by: keeping me unnecessary long time in waiting, telling me to move to Urgent Care ward upon it's opening, not listening to the complaint about the reasons for the pain and failing to perform required manipulations to diagnose the patients condition. One can explain their failure to diagnose the condition only by either lack of qualification, or conscious bias against a non-English patient, or both. Such dire and obvious lack of qualification (or unwillingness to treat of someone they perceived as a foreigner) and open displeasure of dealing with someone they thought was an immigrant family, are absolutely unacceptable behaviours by NHS employees. Therefore, I request you to perform an internal investigation to assess aforementioned employees' qualifications and phycological fitness for working in primary care. Please inform me, a local resident and a tax-payer, of the results of the inquiry.