"Dirty Bathroom and Ward"

I recently had the opportunity to receive Surgery in Sutherland Hospital and for that I am grateful. I spent two nights in recovery in a ward of 4 beds.

After about 24 hours when pain medications were wearing off, I became aware of how dirty it apparently was. The day after I got home I found I had a wound infection (my stomach was bright red). I had to visit my GP who treated me with a course of antibiotics.

I recall the toilets were filthy, the patient in the bed next to them told me they had been there 5 days and they had not been cleaned in that time.

I noticed:

•One of the patients had diarrhoea and the toilet bowl and sometimes floor was dirty.

•There was a ‘witches hat’ toilet that someone was using and it was not emptied, it kept filling with urine until it was full.

•The sink in the toilet was dirty.

•The bin inside the toilet and the bin at the entry to the room were overflowing with medical waste products such as dressings and surgical gloves. These were like this for the 48 hours I was there.

•We ran out of toilet paper for a whole day.

•There was a pole with an almost empty drip bag behind my bed that remained for the 48 hours I was there (it was not mine).

•There was a large green spew on the floor next to my bed that a nurse mopped up after about 24 hours (again it was not mine).

•At one time I could not use the toilet because I felt it was so dirty and I walked around the corridors until I found another toilet, it too was dirty but I had to use it.

I am writing to bring this to your attention what I feel is the serious risk to health that this situation brings. It did not seem like a shortage of nursing staff, there were plenty of nurses around even if they mostly looked like first year trainees, it seemed to me to be more like a shortage of cleaners.