Irish Sun Exposes Poor Hygine in WRH

thomasm

Got to say this is not the impression I have ever got when in WRH with family or friends. Always seems spotless and cant believe he would be left on blood stained sheets for 4-5 days

http://www.thesun.ie/irishsol/homepage/news/4962411/Horror-of-filthy-hospital.html

<SNIP>
Mod: Removed for copyright reasons, if you wish to read the story guys please visit the sun website

This is what happens when money is more important than people. Disgraceful.

mike65

The WRH has been highlighted in the past in cleanliness surveys.

http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=11955

The second least hygienic hospital in the country is Waterford Regional, in 46th place in the ‘Rate my Hospital’ table, with a score of 2.48 (50%) among the 286 people who rated it.

Jason Todd

I've been in WRH a fair bit over the last two years or so, we had a kid, we're now expecting another, my father has had an op, my other half's grandmother had a fall, visiting various relations and friends from time to time and all I've ever seen has been spotless halls and friendly staff. Genuinely. We even bought two of the midwives hampers after they were so excellent with us during the delivery of our first and would have no worries at all with that particular dept. of staff coming up to our second.

When this guy William Devereux never even made a complaint the whole time he was there I would have to say that something is a bit fishy with the story imo.

Jason Todd

mike65 wrote: »

The WRH has been highlighted in the past in cleanliness surveys.

http://www.irishhealth.com/article.html?id=11955

In fairness Mike, that article is over 6 years old.

mike65

I did say "in the past"

MitchKoobski

You'll excuse me if I don't take The Sun as a serious leading news source.

thomasm

Jason Todd wrote: »

I've been in WRH a fair bit over the last two years or so, we had a kid, we're now expecting another, my father has had an op, my other half's grandmother had a fall, visiting various relations and friends from time to time and all I've ever seen has been spotless halls and friendly staff. Genuinely. We even bought two of the midwives hampers after they were so excellent with us during the delivery of our first and would have no worries at all with that particular dept. of staff coming up to our second.

When this guy William Devereux never even made a complaint the whole time he was there I would have to say that something is a bit fishy with the story imo.

That's my experience of WRH and between family and kids we have been in a fair bit over the last few years.

It is very suss he never complained in his ELEVEN month stay

ex_infantry

lads there is more to this story than you know which i won't go into as billy is a friend of my girlfriends family, easy for people to judge when the full facts are not known by ye!!!!

danjo-xx

Been in a couple of times as out patient and found it very clean, seems this guy was more intent in taking photos and building his report for publication instead of dealing with any issues he had and concentrating on recovery.

Smacks of a hatchet job to be honest.

7upfree

danjo-xx wrote: »

Been in a couple of times as out patient and found it very clean, seems this guy was more intent in taking photos and building his report for publication instead of dealing with any issues he had and concentrating on recovery.

Smacks of a hatchet job to be honest.

If there is proof how can it be a "hatchet job"? If he is exposing something he deserves to be lauded - not criticised. Hygiene is the most basic of things.
I would be sceptical myself without having all the facts to hand.

seven_eleven

I was shocked but I had developed other health problems too, including the failure of my kidneys and liver problems.

“Then I developed a heart problem, all of which I suffer from today worse than ever.

Ah here. You think the heart problem is the hospitals fault? Is it because of the medications he was on? Complications from his illness? Hardly a hygeine problem.

On one occasion they told me I had to be resuscitated.

This is a bit confusing. I presume he means he went into cardiac arrest? He says it as if it was just something mentioned to him briefly or if its nothing serious, but there are reasons for why he would have, and hygiene and the standard of care are probably not why.

When the nurses arrived to move him and his bed, William refused to let go and a security team was called.

Thats wont help anything at all. He just made the already tough job for the staff even tougher, impacting his own and other patients care.


While it is true that staff are under huge strain and hospitals are facing difficulties, I think there is a lot more to this we dont know. The Sun is a misleading tabloid newspaper and a lot of the stuff mentioned in this article is really sketchy/uncertain or just nothing of relevance to the hospitals hygiene.


I guarantee you, 100%, that you could write a book of things worse about other hospitals in Ireland. You should see any of the dublin hospitals and how much pressure they're under in comparison. Their emergency departments are like warzones 24/7

There are plenty of issues to be addressed from his complaints, but I think a lot of his anger is misplaced.

wmpdd3

I have had 2 babies in WRH, no complaints at all.

I did see a bit of mismanagement but that was in comparison to the main manager who was excellent.

I have two friends who had terrible treatment there and found it impossible to complain. One had to get legal advice just to get the correct department to complain to.

All other depts just acknowledged her letter and returned it to her stating that it was the wrong dept.

Both issues are finally being investigated properly.

Under pressure does not even come close to describing some staff out there, there stress levels must be akin to WW2 soldiers, but then others just blame cuts for everything.

spankmemunkey

MitchKoobski wrote: »

You'll excuse me if I don't take The Sun as a serious leading news source.

While i agree with what your saying about The Sun, some of the stories they actually report on do happen! just because they have reported it doesnt mean its not true.

I have been in WRH quite a few times and havent been impressed with the hygeine. Now before anyone has a go, thats my experience and my opinion based on experiences, the place is closed down every second week because of the spread of bugs and what not. I had a very serious incident there before and the practices i later found out were brought before a disciplinary commitee of one form or another, thats something i read in a local paper and thought that happened to me, I should have followed up on it. I just wanted to get home and shower after being in there.

With the advent of agency nurses coming in to do a shift theres less accountability and in a busy hospital nurses come and go and when their shift is over they arent going to go the extra bit to clean up certain things when their shift is over in 5 mins and they wont be back til they are called again.

One of the debates i have heard about the problems in today's hospitals is training and accountabillity, nobody wants to accept responsibitly for things.

Max Powers

spankmemunkey wrote: »

While i agree with what your saying about The Sun, some of the stories they actually report on do happen! just because they have reported it doesnt mean its not true.

I have been in WRH quite a few times and havent been impressed with the hygeine. Now before anyone has a go, thats my experience and my opinion based on experiences, the place is closed down every second week because of the spread of bugs and what not. I had a very serious incident there before and the practices i later found out were brought before a disciplinary commitee of one form or another, thats something i read in a local paper and thought that happened to me, I should have followed up on it. I just wanted to get home and shower after being in there.

With the advent of agency nurses coming in to do a shift theres less accountability and in a busy hospital nurses come and go and when their shift is over they arent going to go the extra bit to clean up certain things when their shift is over in 5 mins and they wont be back til they are called again.

One of the debates i have heard about the problems in today's hospitals is training and accountabillity, nobody wants to accept responsibitly for things.

I think we can safely say that hygiene is a problem in nearly all Irish public hospitals. I think we can all agree that the quality of the nursing out there is excellent, i have been out there a couple times in the last couple of years and the nursing/doctor staff are excellent. WRH was the first hospital in the country to get a green rating, (about 5 years ago now). Most importantly however is that the money given to WRH from HSE when compared with other hospitals doing similar numbers of procedures is unfairly small in comparison to other regional hospitals.
to quote the man in the sun:
“The nurses appeared to be under severe pressure because there wasn’t enough of them on the wards to deal with the number of patients they had to look after.''

deisemum

Over the years there's been a lot of complaints about hygiene standards in WRH on wlrfm, people phoning in and texting about vomit and blood stains just left and a whole host of other similiar things and blaming agency cleaners.

The only disgusting thinks that I can recall at the moment were the public toilets, they were in a disgusting state.

There are a lot of staff under pressure but having had a lot of appointments in outpatients over the years I've noticed a lot of nurses in some sections just standing around spending for fair chunks of time chatting about their social/family life when they'd have been better utilised if some of them were sent to work in their respective wards.

Max Powers

deisemum wrote: »

Over the years there's been a lot of complaints about hygiene standards in WRH on wlrfm, people phoning in and texting about vomit and blood stains just left and a whole host of other similiar things and blaming agency cleaners.

The only disgusting thinks that I can recall at the moment were the public toilets, they were in a disgusting state.

There are a lot of staff under pressure but having had a lot of appointments in outpatients over the years I've noticed a lot of nurses in some sections just standing around spending for fair chunks of time chatting about their social/family life when they'd have been better utilised if some of them were sent to work in their respective wards.

Do you know who should take a good bit of the blame is Irish people who dont use the hand-sanitisers, common to see them not being used, pure ignorance, there are audio and visual requests to use em. I was there recently and there is a room in the childrens ward for parents to have a quiet moment, cup of tea etc. This room is only used by parents, the state parents left it, tea bags in the sink, crumbs all over counter, wrappers and spills left where they fall. If parents and Irish people in general (because our attitude to rubbish and cleanliness is like a pigs) are taking that behaviour out into the wards, how could anybody keep the place clean. We as a nation are in general and not all, disgusting pigs with a 'someone elses job' attitude to waste, litter and respect for other peoples and public stuff.

spankmemunkey

Max Powers wrote: »

I think we can safely say that hygiene is a problem in nearly all Irish public hospitals. I think we can all agree that the quality of the nursing out there is excellent, i have been out there a couple times in the last couple of years and the nursing/doctor staff are excellent. WRH was the first hospital in the country to get a green rating, (about 5 years ago now). Most importantly however is that the money given to WRH from HSE when compared with other hospitals doing similar numbers of procedures is unfairly small in comparison to other regional hospitals.
to quote the man in the sun:
“The nurses appeared to be under severe pressure because there wasn’t enough of them on the wards to deal with the number of patients they had to look after.''

I think the problem like you said is the staff levels, i have to stick to my other line though, i never really had good experiences out there, maybe thats just me. I do agree with you that its probably not just WRH that has this problem.

spankmemunkey

Max Powers wrote: »

Do you know who should take a good bit of the blame is Irish people who dont use the hand-sanitisers, common to see them not being used, pure ignorance, there are audio and visual requests to use em. I was there recently and there is a room in the childrens ward for parents to have a quiet moment, cup of tea etc. This room is only used by parents, the state parents left it, tea bags in the sink, crumbs all over counter, wrappers and spills left where they fall. If parents and Irish people in general (because our attitude to rubbish and cleanliness is like a pigs) are taking that behaviour out into the wards, how could anybody keep the place clean. We as a nation are in general and not all, disgusting pigs with a 'someone elses job' attitude to waste, litter and respect for other peoples and public stuff.

Agree 100 percent, and its not just when it comes to hospitals either, its in pubs bars and restraunts, where people think they are paying for something they can do what they want, Another problem i think is porters wearing shoes from the street into work, if you trying to cut down on the amount of bacteria being transfered this surely had to be stopped. They should all be wearing foot wear that stays in house and is machine washable and washed on a regular basis as is the practice in alot of places outside of Ireland

7upfree

Max Powers wrote: »

Do you know who should take a good bit of the blame is Irish people who dont use the hand-sanitisers, common to see them not being used, pure ignorance, there are audio and visual requests to use em. I was there recently and there is a room in the childrens ward for parents to have a quiet moment, cup of tea etc. This room is only used by parents, the state parents left it, tea bags in the sink, crumbs all over counter, wrappers and spills left where they fall. If parents and Irish people in general (because our attitude to rubbish and cleanliness is like a pigs) are taking that behaviour out into the wards, how could anybody keep the place clean. We as a nation are in general and not all, disgusting pigs with a 'someone elses job' attitude to waste, litter and respect for other peoples and public stuff.

I would agree with many of your sentiments Max. But it is a minority who are "pigs" as you describe them. Unfortunately. It is the "monkey see, monkey do" syndrome.

Regarding the hand sanitisers they need to enforce it. If you go into the Whitfield they'll pull you up. I've seen it happen. But there is also an attitude within WRH that it also "someone else's job".

I have also seen people smoking next to "this is a smoking free campus sign" without being challenged. Including patients. It's bloody ridiculous.

Jason Todd

7upfree wrote: »

I would agree with many of your sentiments Max. But it is a minority who are "pigs" as you describe them. Unfortunately. It is the "monkey see, monkey do" syndrome.

Regarding the hand sanitisers they need to enforce it. If you go into the Whitfield they'll pull you up. I've seen it happen. But there is also an attitude within WRH that it also "someone else's job".

I have also seen people smoking next to "this is a smoking free campus sign" without being challenged. Including patients. It's bloody ridiculous.

I can backup the smoking thing alright. Last time I was there, there was a more than couple of people smoking RIGHT NEXT to the no smoking sign! Couldn't believe it!

gowley

ex_infantry wrote: »

lads there is more to this story than you know which i won't go into as billy is a friend of my girlfriends family, easy for people to judge when the full facts are not known by ye!!!!

has he not given his full facts to the "irish" sun. is there more to come

old gregg

No hospital is perfect but having spent time in WRH for various reasons over the years it really reads like this guy is a bitter man who probably pissed everyone off while there and then went and sold a crock of crap to a foreign tabloid rag.

iamaiamai

I was hugely disappointed in the conditions in that hospital when a family member was in ICU last year, and I wouldn't willingly let myself be a patient there.

It's reassuring to see other families and patients trying to speak out and get this issue highlighted.

People can fob it off as much as they like, but if it results in an improvement in conditions in the hospital, that is invaluable.
It will save lives.

Jason Todd

iamaiamai wrote: »

I was hugely disappointed in the conditions in that hospital when a family member was in ICU last year, and I wouldn't willingly let myself be a patient there.

It's reassuring to see other families and patients trying to speak out and get this issue highlighted.

People can fob it off as much as they like, but if it results in an improvement in conditions in the hospital, that is invaluable.
It will save lives.

Nothing wrong with highlighting what you may feel is wrong or unfair treatment, but why not complain at the time? Why make things worse on yourself by being difficult and then going to a newspaper to complain afterwards?

gowley

Jason Todd wrote: »

Nothing wrong with highlighting what you may feel is wrong or unfair treatment, but why not complain at the time? Why make things worse on yourself by being difficult and then going to a newspaper to complain afterwards?

i agree totally with this. and why go to the sun. what about the local papers or some of the irish national papers rather than the sun if you got no satisfaction complaining at the time

Munstermissy

thomasm wrote: »

Double amputee William Devereaux’s diary over 11 months in Waterford General Hospital reveals his claims of the horror of life there.

His exclusive footage, taken from his bed, shows:


BLOOD stains left caked on sheets “for days on end” POOLS of vomit “allowed to rot on the ward floor” causing a “stomach-churning stench” A TWO-hour stand-off with security guards in a row over his refusal to be moved.

The 47-year-old former supermarket boss said: “It was a living nightmare.”

William was forced to give up work when his Type 1 diabetes began to affect his limbs leaving him with no option but to have his left leg amputated two years ago and his right leg amputated last month.

He attributes his deterioration to the fact that he was moved from ward to ward in Waterford General Hospital’s Orthopaedic wing where he was in contact with seriously ill patients.

William’s first stay in the hospital was from August 2011 to April 2012.

He said: “I was in nearly every ward there. I had an open wound and I was being moved around. One ward was full of elderly men who were there to die and I was put in the middle of them.

“It took a very long time for the leg to heal.

“After the surgery they did swab tests and told me I had MRSA. I was shocked but I had developed other health problems too, including the failure of my kidneys and liver problems.

“Then I developed a heart problem, all of which I suffer from today worse than ever.

“They gave me all types of tablets and some of the medication caused me to black out or swell up. On one occasion they told me I had to be resuscitated.

“I was bed-bound when I should have been up and active and coping with the loss of a leg.

“Instead I was being moved around and every time that happened I developed another problem, all of which I put down to being in contact with so many ill people. They finally put me in a private ward four months before I was discharged and I began to improve.

“When I was discharged in August 2012 I was a wreck. I went into hospital to get better and I ended up sicker than ever.”

But William, who has an amazingly positive outlook on life, decided to battle on.

He said: “Diabetes is in my family. On my mother’s side 27 relatives have it, including an uncle who had both his legs and an arm amputated before he died. You have to be positive and there is no point in asking ‘why me?’ I went to the Rehabilitation Centre in Dublin and I got a prosthesis leg. I learned to walk again.”

But soon after William had one of his worst days when he was told he would have to return to the hospital in Ardkeen to have his left leg amputated in March.

He said: “My heart sank, but this time round I decided I’d go prepared. I went in armed with my camera to ensure I had proof of the terrible conditions patients have to endure.”

William believed that conditions had deteriorated even more than when he left the hospital the previous time.

During this stay he claims he was left lying in bed on blood-soaked sheets and cover, with the remnants of his vomit still lying on the floor for “up to five days”.

He said: “When I was admitted my foot was swollen and my big toe was black and dead. But it started to bleed. I was left with my foot sitting on a plastic sheet pumping blood.”

After his leg was amputated he was put into a four-bedroom ward with the wound open and undressed.

William said: “I believe all my problems, which resulted in me being in hospital for 11 months instead of a few weeks, began when they moved me from ward to ward, so this time I was having none of it



management.

I have never been in this particular hospital so cannot comment on hygiene,cleanliness, etc, however, reading about his problems and complications it appears to me to all refer to his medical condition of Type 1 Diabetes. If you do not look after yourself and control your sugar levels this is what can happen to you and amputations occur.

I am only basing my own opinion as I am type 1 too and these complications are hammered into you by your GP, diabetic clinic appointments, etc and if you don't heed the warnings well you suffer the consequences.

iamaiamai

Jason Todd wrote: »

Nothing wrong with highlighting what you may feel is wrong or unfair treatment, but why not complain at the time? Why make things worse on yourself by being difficult and then going to a newspaper to complain afterwards?

How do you know he didn't?

Maybe he's not after money - maybe he thinks the issue needs to be urgently addressed. If sick people are getting sicker, and bacteria is left to fester on surfaces and floors, the results could be deadly.

I don't care as much about his agenda as I do about the bottom line of this article - whether or not WRH is up to standard.

I think taxpayers have a right to know. This is where our money goes, this is what we are investing in, and this is a hospital where most people in the region send their loved ones in good faith. This is a hospital people want to save, not see crumble down around them!

Conditions should be better, let there be no doubt.

All you have to do is walk through the hospital and sit by the bedside of someone you care about to see red flags start to appear. The nurses that dealt with my family were lovely, but I couldn't help thinking they were a little bit overworked and burnt out. Seeing someone mop and sweep a floor at the same time with a cloth over the mop isn't reassuring. I've seen cleaner floors and surfaces in fast food restaurants - and you don't go there when your life is in danger. The standards in a hospital need to be higher than that.

I hope that the hospital makes an effort to show that their hygiene standards are up to par, and I would hope that if anything, it would result in more effort to improve the conditions of the hospital, seeing as it doesn't seem to be anyone else's job beyond agency cleaners. The is a lot of repair work that clearly needs to be done, and unfortunately that doesn't add to the impression visitors get.

I think it's a waste of energy to get involved in the character assassination of a man who raises some serious concerns, and concerns that would be affecting any of us if we were the ones in hospital.

iamaiamai

Munstermissy wrote: »

I have never been in this particular hospital so cannot comment on hygiene,cleanliness, etc, however, reading about his problems and complications it appears to me to all refer to his medical condition of Type 1 Diabetes. If you do not look after yourself and control your sugar levels this is what can happen to you and amputations occur.

I am only basing my own opinion as I am type 1 too and these complications are hammered into you by your GP, diabetic clinic appointments, etc and if you don't heed the warnings well you suffer the consequences.

MRSA is not his fault, and I'm not an expert - but I'm pretty sure that weakens the immune system and makes you susceptible to complications; abscesses, rotting skin, toxic shock.

Also, some infections can attack the organs and result in something akin to septic shock, like SIRS, which is a response to infection.

gowley

iamaiamai wrote: »

How do you know he didn't?

Maybe he's not after money - maybe he thinks the issue needs to be urgently addressed. If sick people are getting sicker, and bacteria is left to fester on surfaces and floors, the results could be deadly.

I don't care as much about his agenda, as I do about the bottom line of this article - whether or not WRH is up to standard.

I think taxpayers have a right to know. This is where our money goes, this is what we are investing in, and this is a hospital where most people in the region send their loved ones in good faith. This is a hospital people want to save, not see crumble down around them!

Conditions should be better, let there be no doubt.

All you have to do is walk through the hospital and sit by the bedside of someone you care about to see red flags start to appear. The nurses that dealt with my family were lovely, but I couldn't help thinking they were a little bit overworked and burnt out. Seeing someone mop and sweep a floor at the same time with a cloth over the mop isn't reassuring. I've seen cleaner floors and surfaces in fast food restaurants - and you don't do there when your life is in danger. The standards in a hospital need to be higher than that.

I hope that the hospital makes an effort to show that their hygiene standards are up to par, and I would hope that if anything, it would result in more effort to improve the conditions of the hospital, seeing as it doesn't seem to be anyone else's job beyond agency cleaners. The is a lot of repair work that clearly needs to be done, and unfortunately that doesn't add to the impression visitors get.

thats a fair point. just find it strange that someone would chose to pick the sun to pick when they are highlighting a problem in their local hospital

backtobass

Jason Todd wrote: »

I can backup the smoking thing alright. Last time I was there, there was a more than couple of people smoking RIGHT NEXT to the no smoking sign! Couldn't believe it!

Their will never be anyone prosecuted for smoking in a hospital as it is their own they will be prosecuting...I.e Patricia Sullivan...hospital manager....it is after all former nurses who are the environmental officers...remember...the person smoking the cigarette is not prosecuted...its the owner/manager...so the whole thing is a joke....and thats a real waste of tax payers money.