"Elderly Mum admitted to A&E"

My Mum was in her eighties with a history of COPD and was still living at home with carers. She had bad bout of pneumonia in January which flared up. GP phoned for ambulance as felt she needed hospital assistance.

She was sent to Hairmyres as Wishaw was closed to new patients. Sat outside A&E in a cold ambulance for about an hour. The ambulance crew were terrific and let me sit with her as she had bit of dementia too.  Eventually got admitted to side room.   The nurse was fabulous doing her obs getting her comfy and reassured.

Then we sat and sat and sat. The nurse kept calling up to get the doctor. They didn't appear until 3:00 in the morning.  They started moving her about, poking and prodding and she became so distressed. Her dignity was left at the door which was horrible. They started to blame the nurse after she'd be chasing for someone all night. They then turned to me and asked if she had a DNR.  I was horrified instead of trying to treat and get her comfortable that was the opening comment.

I never left her the rest of the night because I felt they weren't going to do anything to help her. It's taken me 8 months to write this as it was so distressing. I could see how upset the nurse was too and my Mum was only one of her patients that night. Something needs to change.