Watford General Hospital 2017-01-20 Person 1 5 0

I was treated in the HDU dept of Watford General for 5 days after major surgery and the care was first class and amazing - I couldn't fault it at all as everyone was brilliant. I was transferred to the General Ward after 5 days and the care here was appalling. On the first evening in this ward I was left in a side room without access to the emergency button, without adequate pain relief and then with a nurse that had not been trained to do the job they had asked her to do. My iPhone and iPad had been put across the room so I couldn't reach them to call a member of my family to tell them what was happening. I was in such a state by the following morning that I had to yell at a passing nurse I recognised to come and help me - this was not until late morning. Before this a Health Care Assistant had popped in to put a bowl of water and towels in the room and then left but had not stayed long enough to find out that I could not perform this task. When she came back, she said that the water had gone cold (this shows how long this was) and asked why I had not done anything about washing myself - I then tearfully explained that I could not move as I had drains & drips etc all around me and that I could not reach the call button. She came back some time later with new warm water and helped me to to wash myself. Later the same evening, I was transferred to a 6-bed side ward and I could reach the call button this time. The communication between the doctors looking after me was not good and there was a difference of opinion about when to take drains out etc. Consequently, 1 drain was left in longer than my surgeon deemed necessary which meant I could not go home as planned. When I was unexpectedly seen by my surgeon on a Saturday morning, and he found the last drain still attached, there was no-one on the ward (being a Saturday) qualified to removed this - so he did this himself and signed the paperwork for my release - I was very grateful indeed as I was feeling quite well. First thing the following morning, I had to battle with the staff nurse in charge to get released, and even then she did not pass this information on to the duty doctor, so when he came onto the ward, I had to call him across myself to carry out a full examination for discharge as the paperwork had been signed by my surgeon the previous afternoon. This examination took place at approx 10.30am on Sunday morning and he removed all of my wound dressings, which numbered about 10 in total, including the largest one which was approx 250mm long across my back. He signed the dishcharge paperwork and told the staff nurse to re-dress my wounds and order the drugs I needed from the pharmacy. After an hour I pushed the call button to ask when my open wounds would be re-dressed and was told they were very busy, so I asked if I could have a clean gown as I was naked from the waist upwards and the curtains were closed - I didn't fancy spending any more time on my own behind the closed screens. A clean gown was provided but the open wounds did not get dressed until approx 4.30pm that afternoon - I think this is appalling! The pharmacy finally delivered the drugs at approx 5.15pm and I was allowed to go home. After such brilliant care in the High Dependency Unit, the above was quite a shock, and even if I was not comparing the two wards, the care I received on the General Ward was far below what I would call Good. I hope this review will help the system to be improved for other future patients.