Enter and view: Thornbury Hospital (Henderson Ward)

Healthwatch South Gloucestershire conducted an announced Enter and View visit to Thornbury Hospital (Henderson Ward) on 2 February 2018 as part of an ongoing programme of work to understand the quality of residents’ rehabilitation experience within both clinical and local care home settings.

Henderson ward delivers reablement to avoid patients experiencing delayed transfers of care from hospitals. It is used as a ‘half way house’ for patients who are not well enough to be discharged home, but whom it is hoped will be able to return to independent living with more rehabilitation. The average length of stay on the ward is 28 days and the average patient is 91 years old. Patients must be over 18 years old. Most patients admitted to the ward need reablement after fractures and respiratory infections.

Admissions are from Southmead hospital for reablement, or from accident and emergency if considered medically stable and non acute, but medically complex. GPs can also admit direct.

The patients told Healthwatch South Gloucestershire Authorised Representatives that the discharge process was well organised and the staff were clear about the steps to be taken. However, it was observed that the building itself is old and in need of modernisation with long, narrow ward structures imposing limitations on individual space and personal privacy. The use of curtaining, to create the illusion of privacy adds to the sense of overcrowding.

Patients on the Ward were, on the whole, complimentary about the food, the equipment and the quality of the care they received.

The report makes two recommendations; one regarding the availability of shaving mirrors and one regarding the cool temperature of the Ward.