"Basic lack of care and no way to speak to staff"

My 84 year old mother was sent in by her GP, with severe leg pain, late at night on 11/9/23. By midday on 12/9/23, over 12 hours after admission, she had only just received her 08.00 antihypertensives, she wasn't sure about her other medication (that must be taken with food), and she had not had a single dose of her 4hrly analgesics since admission.

Just as importantly, she had been offered neither food nor any fluids, not even a cup of tea in that 12 hour period. As a former healthcare worker (for 40 years), she knows the part that nutrition and hydration play in maintaining good health but as an elderly lady, she didn't like to ask busy staff but nor should she need to. My mother also has recurrent urinary tract infections and therefore understands how important it is for her to drink plenty throughout the day so, to have been offered nothing at all to drink for over 12 hours is simply appalling and very poor basic patient care.

I tried, in vain, to contact A & E to ask them to provide her with a cup of tea and some food. Sadly, after 90 minutes of trying, I had to give up and head off to work. In the course of that 90 minutes, I tried phoning A & E reception, the nurses' station and even asked to be put through to the matron/ senior nurse covering A & E but despite numerous attempts nobody answered any of my calls. It made no difference whether I tried using the automated phone system or went through the operator. When I asked about the possibility of speaking to someone else, the operator told me that there wasn't anybody else that they could try.

I myself worked as an NHS professional for over 30 years, in nursing and midwifery, and could not believe the lack of basic care or the fact that it was impossible to speak to anyone at all within the department or even the hospital. I understand fully that staff are extremely busy but has it really got to the point where an elderly patient isn't even offered a cup of tea? Where hydration and nutrition are not part of basic nursing care? Or that a concerned relative is unable to speak to a member of staff? This is not the NHS to which my mother dedicated her whole working life.