Share review of The Whiteleaf Centre

The Whiteleaf Centre 2017-07-06 Person 2 5 0

The service could definitely be better because there is an on-sight gym but no instructor to facilitate it. I have put on weight due to the medication, over eating and lack of gluten free options on the menu and this has caused a lot of frustration and slight depression. I am disappointed that by the time I leave this place it will probably be amended however it should have been there in the first place to cater for my dietary needs; as well as other patients. I think that the staff are very friendly and I have built a very good rapport with the hospital and patients. I hope that if I was ever in need to return to this facility that they would understand my needs from my notes and be able to help me more. I have dealt with 5 assaults on the ward when staff aren't around and this should not have happened despite knowing that the patients are ill and it has led me to feel un-safe when staff are not present but aside from that I do feel safe here and the staff are perfectly trained to deal with conflict, as and when it happens. The only criticism I truly have is that there needs to be more OT support because there are times when I would like to go for a community walk with other patients and there is restriction in the OT staff being able to take more than one patient out at a time. There are also activities such as cooking that the patients would really enjoy and these activities never happen despite there being a kitchen in the whiteleaf day hospital. Also, there are often times the staff tell us they will facilitate a movie night and either forget to set it up or there are patients in need of specialist support. However, there are times when it feels as though 10 patients could be looked after with an activity such as a movie whilst an incident is happening because we could be kept calm, instead of us sitting here bored and also anxious about another patient. To finish, I would like to say that it deeply saddens me when agency staff come on shift and are paid more than regular staff to help us when I have often seen at night them falling asleep or very untrained in helping patients with their issues and would suggest that these staff members do not come to work here as they are causing more harm than good. On the contrary, there are some incredible agency staff workers, frank, giselle, mabel, lemo, debbie, and others I have forgotten the names of who have really helped me in my recovery and I consider all HCA and nursing staff to be miracle workers in their roles. Thanks for reading and I hope this helps improve the service here.