FARNBOROUGH: 'Bewildered' widow slams Princess Royal University Hospital (From News Shopper)

FARNBOROUGH: 'Bewildered' widow slams Princess Royal University Hospital

8:30am Friday 28th August 2009 in Health News

The Patients Association is urging the Government to clean up the NHS and crack down on trusts providing substandard care. As part of the association’s investigations, SCOTT MULLINS hears the story of two women who both watched their husband die of cancer.

The Patients Not Numbers, People Not Statistics report has been released as part of the Patients Association’s campaign to improve the quality of care in the NHS.

The report tells the story of 16 patients, including two men from Orpington and Petts Wood who were treated at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) in Farnborough before they died.

Patients Association president Claire Rayner said: “For far too long now, the Patients Association has been receiving calls on our helpline from people wanting to talk about the dreadful, neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel treatment their elderly relatives had experienced at the hands of NHS nurses.”

A spokesman for South London Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs the PRUH, said: “We take all complaints seriously and learn from them, and we have taken on board the concerns highlighted in these two cases about staff communication and the need to demonstrate compassion towards patients' families.”

COLIN AND MARIAN

Colin Purkiss Smith from Petts Wood lost his battle with lung cancer in the hospital on June 16 last year aged 62. His wife Marian Smith, 55, tells how her husband was admitted to the PRUH six days earlier on June 10.

“I trusted the hospital to look after him as he was very sick.

"I was told my husband had fallen out of bed and as a result cut his head badly while trying to get himself to the toilet. There was still blood on the pillowcase and blood on the floor.

“My husband fell out of bed again and when I went back in to see him, there was blood again on the pillowcase and again his head was badly cut.

"That evening my husband wanted to go to the toilet. I needed help from staff to take him and so I asked staff for help. Over an hour later still no one had come and my husband had an accident in the bed.

"If I had known or someone had told me the severity of my husband’s illness once he had been taken into hospital, I would have moved heaven and earth to ensure that he was comfortable and that he got what he wanted, which was to be brought home.”

JOHN AND MARGARET

Engineer John Drake from Orpington was diagnosed with prostate cancer last May and visited the PRUH for a scan later that year on July 28. Margaret Drake, 67, says her husband died in her arms at St Christopher's Hospice a month later on August 26, aged 72.

“When we arrived on the ward the female staff member proceeded to shout at my husband “can you walk”? “Can you get on a bed on your own”? I informed her that my husband could do neither without assistance and I asked her to please not shout at my husband as he was neither deaf, nor senile.

“On July 29 we received a call from the hospital to say that my husband had a fall. My husband appeared very dehydrated and even more confused. My husband had not been washed and neither was there water on my husband’s locker. I washed my husband myself and gave him a lot of water to drink.

"I felt completely bewildered and powerless. I was determined that my husband would not live out the last few days of his life in their care.”