Hospital patient so shocked at dirty ward she climbed out of bed to clean it herself

Daily Mail UK ^ | July 2, 2009 | Andrew Levy

[rightwingintelligentsia]

After 12 years cleaning care homes and private houses, no one is better qualified than Tereza Tosbell to say whether a room is spotless.

So hospital bosses should take heed of her opinion after she spent four days on a 'filthy' ward.

The mother-of-one said during her stay there was a single, brief visit from a cleaner who left dusty curtains, dirty bedframes and a messy floor.

Disgusted at the conditions, she grabbed the antibacterial fluid dispenser at the end of her bed and some hand towels from the bathroom.

She then set about cleaning her four-bed ward, at one point dropping to her hands and knees to sanitise the floor as she dragged her drip trolley behind her.

'It was shameful to see how sloppy the cleaners were while I was there. I was not prepared to put up with such conditions,' said Miss Tosbell, a 48-year-old divorcee who was admitted to Colchester General Hospital in Essex with an abscess in her neck.

[Judith Anne]

Honestly, I don’t understand why you got that response. I’d have called the supervising nurse or the administrator, as well. Maybe both.

If you were my patient, I’d offer you assistance eating, and if you couldn’t because of nausea, I’d notify the doctor and see if he would prescribe some antinausea medication.

The conditions you describe are outrageous. I’m sorry that happened to you.

[Americanwolf]

apologies all around....sorry....sorry.... :)

[Graybeard58]

Time to find a new nursing home, they aren’t all that way.

I hadn’t had much experience with nursing homes until my aunt was in one in Kokomo, Indiana and I started visiting her. My aunt had Altzheimer’s and could be quite difficult to deal with.

In all my trips there she was being very well taken care of and the place was always spotless.

[Deb]

it was a joke.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

I actually didn’t complain about it at the time, though I should have.

I was just happy to have a private room (all standard in that hospital), instead of being in a ward like most of the people in the UK health service.

[Judith Anne]

Oh.

Hilarious.

[Judith Anne]

Hope the rest of your recovery was much smoother. The couple of times I’ve been in the hospital, the ancillary personnel did a good job, but I realize that’s not always the case.

[Deb]

thanks.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

I do think the level of care varies from place to place. And sometimes the personnel are just overwhelmed.

[Rebelbase]

It’s the hospital staff’s responsibility to clean up after a patient vomits.

[Rebelbase]

OK, you got me.

[dalereed]

she’s lucky, under obama care you won’t even be let into the hospital.

[ExTexasRedhead]

Guaranteed that no Elitist member of Congress will EVER have medical care like this. They want YOU and I to have this kind of medical care so they have the power over our lives and literally power over our deaths. Count on it.

[PAR35]

The thing to do at that point is to demand to see the head nurse, and have your visitors demand to see the head nurse. If that doesn’t work, call the administrator’s office.

They have ways of punishing you if you rock the boat. You are at their mercy, and they know it.

[La Lydia]

Oh, no you aren’t. You just have to keep moving up the food chain, and in dire circumstances, mention the newspaper or TV station that your brother runs that would like to do an expose of the lamentable conditions there at UrbanSprawl Inova Hospital.

[PAR35]

In the mean time, you aren’t getting assistance in relieving yourself, you might not get pain medicine, you might end up with a staph infection, and an aide might end up with a letter in her personnel file.

[Little Ray]

At a hospital (that shall remain nameless) my daughter was staying at long term, my wife had the same response. What was strange was that different floors were of different quality. The burn center and sixth floor were great - clean, attentive, and well managed; the fourth floor was dreadful - dirty, slothful and neglectful. On the fourth floor they wouldn’t pay attention to my wife; I had to intimidate some nurses (loom, frown and be persistent - careful what you say in a hospital) to get them to provide morphine for my daughter who was literally screaming from the itching caused by her grafts. My wife had change her diapers, otherwise she’d have lain in her own filth for hours.
I hate to think what it would be like under Obamacare. Hell on Earth?

[La Lydia]

You are a victim, I can tell, but you don't have to be. Everyone who goes to the hospital should have an advocate --a friend, family member, bouncer -- to run this kind of interference. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. What they absolutely hate is if you or your advocate makes a loud, very public scene about the lack of care, medicine, etc. You have to be a loud bitch or bastard, depending, if it is that kind of hospital, and so does your advocate. It doesn't hurt if the advocate is carrying a video camera and recording the conditions.

[donna]

David Asman, the Fox News reporter wrote an interesting account of his experiences in 2005:

There’s No Place Like Home
What I learned from my wife’s month in the British medical system.
by DAVID ASMAN
Wednesday, June 8, 2005

As far as we could tell in our month at Queen’s Square, the only method of keeping the floors clean was an industrious worker from the Philippines named Marcello, equipped with a mop and pail. Marcello did the best that he could. But there’s only so much a single worker can do with a mop and pail against a ward full of germ-laden filth.

Only a constant cleaning by me kept our little corner of the ward relatively germ-free. When my wife and I walked into Cornell University Hospital in New York after a month in England, the first thing we noticed was the floors. They were not only clean. They were shining! We were giddy with the prospect of not constantly engaging in germ warfare.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110006785

[SuperLuminal]

bttt