Mistreatment by nurses

Last Thursday morning my mom was admitted to Busamed Gateway hospital - supposedly a private hospital. She had to undergo a rotator cuff repair done by Dr Keegan Naidoo - he's a brilliant orthopaedic surgeon who we would highly recommend.

My mom was in ward D and the treatment she received was pathetic. The nurses were given instructions to provide my mom with pain medication every four hours. This was only administered once after she came out of surgery. She was not attended to when she needed the bathroom even after asking time and time again - the nurses kept telling her to "hold it". When I arrived during visiting hours at 7pm (6 and a half hours after her surgery), I asked a nurse to disconnect the IV drip so I could take my mom to the bathroom - the nurse told me that she was now off duty and couldn't help me. I told her it would only take a second, but she insisted that she couldn't help me, then she walked away to chat to other nurses. There was also no toilet paper in the bathroom. The sling on my mom's arm was also put incorrectly which caused her arm to be in more pain. The head nurse, Sharon, had said that she would fix the sling but she never did. My mom struggled to sleep due to the severe pain and noise from the nurses chatting and laughing. She was left writhing in pain until 2am when she finally tried to call the doctor which got a reaction out of the nurses because they were afraid that they would be reported. She was then given some pain medication. The catering services were just as bad. My mom had asked the nurse what was available for breakfast and was repeatedly only given one option. The next morning my mom was given cold eggs and bacon, while the lady in the bed opposite her was given a ****in, cereal, eggs, and bacon. When my mom enquired about the breakfast again, she was told that she had never asked for more options. The nurses helped the lady in the opposite bed have a bath but left my mom to suffer and bath herself while she was dizzy from the medication. The doctor had advised my mom to stay for another night due to her severe pain, but because of the absolutely horrid treatment from the nurses she chose to rather come home.

This is supposed to be a private hospital. People pay so much to be in that hospital and yet the treatment of patients is so pathetic. We would never recommend this hospital to anyone.

The only nurses we would like to commend are Nonkululeko for helping my mom to eat her dinner, and Romi for helping when she was being discharged.