"Really poor care"

Took my 91-yr-old mum with dementia to Lagan Valley Urgent Care on Friday after a fall. Didn't do blood tests in Urgent Care, as she didn't need them apparently.  She was kept in until Sat so that a physio MDT could happen. But was then told on Sat that the physios weren't there.  They also did blood tests and a cardiac marker was off so she needed echo scan, which couldn't happen until Monday (Urgent Care could have done this straight away if they had done bloods I am assuming?)

So she was in until Monday. Called Monday and was told that scan probably wouldn't happen Monday as referral had only just been made and they were very busy. So poor mum had another night in this very depressing ward with only one visit a day for 30 minutes (I asked if she could have another in the circumstances since she thought she was getting home and being in the hospital was making her confusion worse, but was told no).

I called on Tuesday, and was told nurses were in meeting and would call back. After 2 hours of no call I called. I called 3 times and the phone was cut off after ringing out for a few minutes. Then I finally got through and spoke to 2 nurses, who had no clue what was going on before I was put through to someone who could help. I was told that the echo scan still hadn't been done and she probably wouldn't get out. I told them this wasn't good enough and drove up immediately to speak to a doctor in person.

After a long wait for the doctor, they confirmed that the scan had been done and sped up the process of reporting and discharge so that she could come home rather than have another unnecessary and confusing night in the ward. The doctor apologised for the bad communication.

The ward seems very disorganised. It also smells strongly of urine immediately when you enter, which it shouldn't do if patients are being looked after and kept clean. I have just washed mum's clothes that were sent home and I nearly vomited with the strong stench of urine on them, which is never the case at home.  Her nightdress and dressing gown were both soaking and even a tissue in the pocket of her dressing gown was sodden with urine.

I can only assume that they didn't change her pad regularly and let her sit/lie in wet pads that then leaked and she wasn't cleaned up. At home the carers wash her each day and change her clothes and there is never a smell. This is really poor care, and unnecessary. NHS you can, and should do much better than this