King's Wood Centre - Colchester

Lawerence G.

Reading the reviews whilst being in here, I would like to say that those rumours about sedating you when you first walk in are completely untrue, I believe that this happens when patients kick off and are putting other patients and staff at danger.

I found that all staff, no matter their status, were ALL very professional and amazing in what they do for the patients.

The care and support I received was amazing, no faults could be said.

Tope A.

The list of things to mention about this place is far too long to say on here. suffice to say if any of your loved ones are to be admitted here, pull them out and find an alternative

Alison P.

Peter bruff ward. Ridicules. An assessment unit. Soon as you arrive they give you an injection to calm you down. Then they assess you. Lie about how you have been. Then when they release you, they give you a weeks worth of medication just to walk out the door with. Fantastic idear when you have a long history of overdosing. Give yourself a big pat on the back for keeping patients safe.

izzy D.

How this place has 3 star reviews is baffling to me. I was admitted here on two occasions. My first admission was around a month long and I eventually got transferred to the lakes after being placed on a Section 3. Nothing too sinister occurred during this admission, other than the ward being incredibly short staffed, and the consultant putting me on medication that was making me pass out and refused to take me off it. In the end I started refusing meds, and only then he changed it. My second admission was for only 5 days, after being on a 136 I got admitted informally to Peter Bruff ward. The things that happened during these five days I will never get over. After having an incident in my room I came out to find one of the nurses (Ken) slagging me off to other staff members in the corridor. When I went up to him and asked him for his full name so I could make a formal complaint he simply refused to give it to me. He then proceeded to go and get his body cam out the office and film me, simply asking for his name and him refusing to give it to me. I ended up getting agitated because it seemed as though this nurse was trying to purposely provoke me. I then took his camera off him and Ken then decided to slam me up against the wall and start wrestling with me to get the camera off me. He used such force that he cut my hand and left bruises on my arms. Multiple patients witnessed this ordeal and were telling him to stop. They also reported it to the ward manager. The morning after this ordeal I had multiple junior doctors come into my room (i did not see the consultant for the entirety of my admission). These junior doctors came into my room and said ‘so do you know what the plan is? Obviously I didn’t as no one had bothered to inform me and they then told me they were discharging me. So obviously I asked when and then replied ‘now.’ I also didn’t have anywhere to be discharged to so when I asked where I would be discharged to they told me they ‘didn’t know.’ Obviously this made me stress and panic, which subsequently led to a suicide attempt. They then proceeded to take everything out of my room. I went up to the office and said I wanted to self discharge and the nurse Michelle told me ‘that’s good because the transport will be here in an hour.’ I said that I wanted to leave now and she simply shut the window to the office and ignored me. This led to me getting extremely distressed and going into the dining area and throwing objects. During this security (Kevin) grabbed hold of me and threw me in the airlock. They left me in the airlock for around an hour. They wouldn’t let me out when I asked repeatedly to be let out, despite the fact that I was an informal patient and they had no right to not let me out. When the transport arrived they let me out the door, whilst I was crying and hyperventilating and didn’t know where I was going. This was also only around an hour after I attempted suicide. Even without the fact that the staff performed illegal restraints on me a lot of the staff are really rude, blunt, and careless. There was a time where I had an incident of self harm in my room and Michelle came in and simply went ‘I hope you’re going to clean that up’ and said ‘look at all the mess you’ve made.’ Not a single are your okay or anything. She then made me clean my own blood off the wall. One thing I will say is that some staff here do genuinely care and are amazing at their job, but it doesn’t make up for the abuse and negligence which goes down on this ward.

Hayley J.

My daughter was seen here for 11 days the place is short staffed and hard to communicate with
The nurse Michelle is blunt and unempathetic towards patients and their families.
The follow up care is non exsisitant or takes forever for patients that are suicidal.
Information is not given
Patients are seen online by GPS.
This is a pointless service
We have put in a formal complaint to pals and I feel if my daughter harms herself or worse the mental health system in this country is to blame its disgusting
Maybe we can call 111 option 2 and wait another 12 hours in A and E pointless bed it's cruel and inhuman .

The R. A. W. T. D.

Eh,it has its good times,it has its bad times,I do think that staff need to brush on there skills when it comes to physical or psychiatric emergencies on the ward and how they treat their patients,if you treat your patients badly,don't expect them to wanna apologise for getting verbal and calling you out,you triggered them,you gotta face the consequences,also if one patient does something they shouldn't,please stop blaming the other patients,they are already suffering with their inner demons,don't punish them for something that wasn't their fault.
I feel like the saying will always go"patients take care of each other more than staff take care of the patients",its a sad reality.

louisa F.

Truly horrible. Staff are so nasty, gaslight you and sedate and punish you. No kindness or care at all.

Jorge B.

I was in there the staff was very nice saved my life BIG UP THE NHS