Saturday 4 July 2009

Hospital patient so shocked at dirty ward she climbed out of bed to clean it herself

After 12 years cleaning care homes and private houses, Tereza Tosbell has a keen eye for a dirty room.

But the last place she expected to need her skills was in hospital - where she was a patient.

The sick 48-year-old was so disgusted at the conditions after three days on a 'filthy' ward that she grabbed the antibacterial fluid dispenser at the end of her bed and some hand towels from the bathroom.

Patient Tereza Tosbell was so disgusted at the cleanliness at Colchester General Hospital that she got out of bed and cleaned the ward herself

She set about cleaning her four-bed ward, even going down on hands and knees to sanitise the floor as she dragged her drip trolley behind her.

The divorced mother-of-one said during her four-day stay there was just one brief visit from a cleaner who left dusty curtains, dirty bedframes and a messy floor.

'It was shameful to see how sloppy the cleaners were while I was there. I was not prepared to put up with such conditions,' said Miss Tosbell, who was admitted to Colchester General Hospital in Essex with an abscess in her neck.

'I reckon in total I was cleaning for about an hour. I could hardly move my neck because of the abscess behind my left ear and my left hand was bruised from

the cannula but I had to do something.

'The nurses and other staff saw what I was doing but just left me to get on with it.'

She added: 'My 22-year-old son Liam came to see me on the first night and the first thing he said was "Have you seen how filthy the lift is?" before complaining about the room I was in.

'He's a typical university student, so coming from him it must have been bad.'

3 comments:

Henry North London 2.0 said...

If she'd been a member of staff some policy would have kicked in and they would have been prevented.

Mark Wadsworth said...

What Henry says.

Sue said...

Sprightly pensioner dies in 'zoo' hospital after 'catalogue of blunders by staff'