"In challenging circumstances these staff done their best"

My mum became unwell and attended daisy hill an and e.  We were treated so well by the staff especially nurses Aiden, Maura and Doctor Ciara. 

In what appeared very challenging circumstances these staff done their best to ensure my mum was comfortable by ensuring she had a bed to wait to get into the ward, giving an extra pillow and overall just being so nice, approachable and knowledgeable. 

Mum spent the night in an and e waiting for the bed and then we went up to the ward. We were met by nurse Katherine who was just as great. She was really helpful, friendly and put my mum at real ease. When mum became more unwell she was very attentive and took action quickly. 

Although I understand that additional beds have been put into wards due to ward closures and short staff, what I will say is staff most definitely appeared under pressure with this, also the practicalities of the space available is not great. All of the patients  including my mum needed to use a rollator to mobilise and the additional bed do present a major falls risk and to be honest from a patient perspective absolutely no privacy… mum was sharing a bay with another lady which meant there was no ability to pull a curtain to change etc.

The staff of Daisy hill are most definitely your biggest asset, please make sure this compliment gets to them.

I do suggest if bays need to be shared that an additional curtain or privacy screen is used to separate the bed space and provide privacy. Although I really do not think this is an ideal fix as the rooms themselves are really not big enough to allow beds, chairs and cupboards for more than 6 patients, especially when they need to use aids to mobilise.