Warning over single bed wards for planned hospital in Cinderford
Calls for NHS trust to replace plans for single rooms with multi-bed wards over patient safety fears
A man from Gloucestershire who almost died in a single bed hospital ward doesn't want anyone else to go through what he did.
Whilst recovering from heart surgery three years ago Bill Osborne, who's the former mayor of Lydney, woke up in the middle of the night drenched in blood after his catheter came out and he wasn't seen to until the next morning.
Why the concern over single-bed wards?
Mr Osborne pressed the buzzer to call for help at around midnight.
But when a trainee nurse arrived, she told him there was nothing she could do and needed to find a more senior nurse.
He tried the buzzer again two hours later but it was not until around 6am when the ward sister arrived that he was seen to.
"I was bloody scared," he said.
"I woke up in a wet bed. The sheets were red. My arm just wouldn't stop bleeding.
"When I looked at my right arm, I could see the blood coming out. The catheter in my arm had come out in the night. So, I pushed the button to get some attention. And when someone finally came, this was just after midnight, it was a trainee nurse who said was not authorised to do anything. She said she would go and find a nurse. Nobody turned up."
"I pressed the button a couple of times and all it did was this trainee nurse came and turned it off and said she couldn't find a qualified nurse. It wasn't until just after 6am when the sister came that they saw to me. She was worried and she went straight out and fetched a proper nurse and told them to get it sorted and she wanted to see all nurses in her office later that day."
"The sister was very, very good."
Mr Osborne said that the hospital later apologised over the incident and he is now in relatively good health. He praised the surgeons who operated on him and said the sister in charge of the ward was excellent.
Mr Osborne's concerned about plans for a new hospital with single bed rooms in Cinderford to replace the Dilke Memorial Hospital and Lydney Hospital. The plans are for the ward to be made up of single rooms with ensuite facilities. And Mr Osborne believes his bad experience outside of the county is a warning of the potential risk to patients who are not kept in multi-bed wards.
"That's why I'm dead against single-bed wards," he said.
"With multi-bed wards, You've still got curtains you can pull around if you want to be on your own. But at least if anything like that did happen, and even if the curtains were pulled round, you could still make sure whoever is in the bed next to you knows you are desperate for a nurse and they could get one for you.
"But with single-bed wards once the door is shut you've got no way of getting assistance."
Health bosses say single rooms are a much safer option for preventing the spread of coronavirus.
Hospital bosses say their learning over the last 18 months with Covid-19 has clearly demonstrated that single rooms are a much safer option for preventing the spread of infection.
Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust strategy and partnerships director Angela Potter said: "Single rooms with en-suite facilities also help ensure privacy and dignity for people, who are often more confident to use their own bathroom and prefer that to using a commode by the bedside. There is greater digital technology available now to help patients keep in touch with their loved ones, and there will be social space on the wards where people can meet others to also help reduce the risk of loneliness and isolation."
"Our trust has a great deal of experience of providing care in both bays and single rooms in a community hospital setting and we are confident that our nursing team will provide high quality care within a new hospital that has single rooms for all our patients."
The trust is in the process of submitting a planning application for the proposed new 24-bed hospital planned for Steam Mills Road, in Cinderford, which is due to open in summer 2023.