Learn to care for patients!

My dad was transferred to Constantiaberg yesterday afternoon after spending 3 full weeks in High Care at Kingsbury hospital. I was there for a few hours yesterday afternoon as visiting hours in that ward are not limited to an hour, and what I witnessed was so sad to see.

While I understand that nurses have many patients to attend to, I was utterly appalled and the lack of care for the patients. This was not only for my dad, but other patients as I had seen some interactions while I was waiting in the hallway for items.

There is no bedside manner at all, my father was made to feel as though he was a burden, it took 3 hours to get him a glass of water, the catheter bag was not checked as we needed to show the nurse and the list goes on. I thought perhaps its just an off day for the nurses and went on-line to read reviews. Only to learn that the service standards and ratings are shockingly low. Surely, constant reviews of such a nature should necessitate an intervention into service standards? Part of a nurse's job is to care for a patient and I do believe that this needs to be a focus area for the hospital. As family of the patient, when you sit there and watch the happenings, you can understand why people say that more focus goes into the business side than the hospital side of that establishment.

The heartbreaking part was when my dad asked why he needs to be there - because while he doesn't like being in hospital, can he not go back to the other hospital rather.