Enter & view: In-Patient Elderly Rehabilitation Service (IERS), Mary Seacole Ward, Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton
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Healthwatch Wandsworth undertook an enter and view to Mary Seacole Ward (MS) at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton, which provides an Inpatient Elderly Rehabilitation Service, to compare with a visit to another integrated care facility. The visit took place on 13 November 2018 and they spoke to 15 patients.
Most patients were positive about the standard of nursing care and the attitude of nurses on MS. Several patients would have liked to receive written information in advance about MS and its rehabilitation facilities. Some patients expressed concern about nurses’ workload. The ward was relying on a high number of temporary staff, and Healthwatch wondered whether this might explain an apparent lack of relaxed interaction between patients and nursing staff. The therapy team at MS was clearly committed to the provision of a personalised, goal oriented and multi-disciplinary approach to rehabilitation in integrated care, within their constraints and client profile. However, it was not clear that information on this was fully shared with the rest of the team.
A few patients felt that their rehabilitation programme seemed less intensive than expected. MS is a 40-bedded inpatient ward, following hospital routines. Some patients commented favourably on the comparative peace and quiet on MS, following their experience of busy wards in different acute hospitals in the locality. Healthwatch considered however, that more could be done to provide greater activity and autonomy for rehabilitation patients by, for example, encouraging people to wear their own clothes, and providing a range of more stimulating social activities.
Overall, they concluded that the rehabilitation service being delivered on MS is generally delivering a positive bed-based IC service. However, this is not the only service being delivered on the ward, as variable numbers of older patients who are not able to benefit from an IC service are also admitted when there are pressures elsewhere in the acute hospital sector. This provides additional challenges for the MS service and reduces the number of available IC beds.
There were 10 recommendations aimed at improving the service provided.