Enter and view: Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, Respiratory Unit

Healthwatch Gloucestershire undertook an announced enter and view visit to the Respiratory Unit at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital on 24 September 2025. 

Overall, staff and patients highlighted a positive culture and experience on the ward, enabled by the ward management leadership and consistency within the staff team.

Patients with experience of other wards rate ward 8 as better. One remarked it was due to ‘the level of care and staff’.

Issues around discharge were raised by staff who recognised that there can be delays when onward care in the community is needed, however, one member of staff considered that the situation has been improving over the last year. 

Patients who had been readmitted to the ward felt that they had been discharged too early. This is raised as a patient perspective rather than a judgment of care provided or discharge procedures.  One of the four relatives spoken to said they would prefer earlier involvement in patient’s care and discharge processes.

It was noted that the notice boards on the ward contained a lot of information including leaflets about a wide number of health conditions, and it was not always clear who the audience for the information was for. For example, noticeboards containing information about treatment pathways using clinical language and acronyms. Some posters on walls did not contain corresponding information such as how many staff were on shift.

On exiting the lifts on floor 8, the signage for visitors/arriving patients is not clear.

There is a specialist menu to meet cultural requirements, however this was described as restrictive, repetitive and little choice. The food was ‘hit and miss’; comments ranged from good to poor.

Deconditioning was recognised by staff and management as an issue: we were told that people are encouraged to participate in movement and activities with specialist support (physio & OT). The manager commented upon the increasing emphasis on preventing or improving the impact of deconditioning throughout the hospital and ‘work’ was being conducted in this field.

Healthwatch found very little use of hospital passports/ What Matters to Me folders although the staff that were aware of them spoke very positively about how these can be applied. However, patients commented that they felt able to communicate their needs to staff on the ward.

Martha’s Rule (known as Call for Concern at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust): We found staff had good knowledge of this, however less amongst patients. Healthwatch observed a poster promoting Martha’s Rule on the nurses’ station; however, this may not be accessible to all patients. Although these posters were not obvious on the bays.