A HOSPITAL nurse has spoken out in defence of the quality of care given to patients.

She said staff had been left upset at recent negative stories — especially about a so-called "epidemic" of bedsores — and that she wanted to set the record straight and reassure patients who were due to spend time on the wards.

The nurse, who works in Morriston Hospital but asked the Post not to make her name public, said: "The ward I work on provides a great standard of care.

"The patients are always happy and grateful for the care they have received — hence our ward cupboard is always full of tins of chocolates from patients and their relatives as a thank you for the good care they received.

Standards

"What ever happened to the positive attitude towards staff in the hospitals?

"We often experience nasty and violent behaviour from some patients that are drunk or on drugs, and yet we seem to have to put up with it."

She added: "There is no doubt bad care occurs sometimes, but there are good standards of care on wards too, which I think needs to be recognised."

The standard of care in Morriston and Singleton hospitals has been in the spotlight in recent weeks after comments from a member of the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg Community Health Council who claimed the number of patients with bedsores had reached epidemic proportions.

Alison Morgan, a Swansea member of the health watchdog, also said that some bed-bound pensioners were suffering from malnutrition.

The claims were later rebuffed by the ABM University Health Board which pointed out that while on average one-in-ten patients in British hospitals developed some kind of pressure sore, in the board's five Swansea hospitals — Singleton, Morriston, Hill House, Gorseinon and Gellinudd — there were just 83 incidents in the last year out of 90,000 patients.

The Morriston nurse said most patients she saw with bedsores had had them when they arrived.

"From my opinion we need to be looking at nursing homes and homecare with this issue because many patients that come in from this type of setting have them," she said.

"Also, when they arrive they have no clean clothes resulting in having to wear a hospital gown which are not the most dignified piece of clothing. They arrive with no oral or general hygiene products and no-one ever comes to see them."

She added: "Finally, I think people need to take a step back and look at hospitals as somewhere people get better and not as a hotel which I think many people do."

jason.evans@swwmedia.co.uk