"How we were told my mum had 3 months to live"

My Mum was taken to Treliske Hospital with symptoms of a stroke by ambulance. The care  mum was given in the Majors department was excellent. After a quick CT scan they found a mass on her brain - we were told she needed a urgent MRI to see what it was and Mum was transferred to the AMU ward overnight. It took 3 days to get the MRI which then confirmed mum had a tumour and the scans needed to be seen by consultants at Derriford Hospital.

We heard nothing until 4 days later when at first we thought we were taking mum home as an outpatient as we had been told if it's urgent we would have heard by now. My Dad stayed home to make sure the house was ready and myself and my brother went to see Mum.

The next thing was a Macmillan nurse came to our cubicle, pulled the curtain around the bed, asked mum a few questions and then said they were afraid it was not good news...Mum had an inoperable brain tumour and we were told that mum had 3 months to live...which you can imagine was such a shock to us as we had been given the impression Mum was being sent home under the care of Derriford as an outpatient.

Surely when being told such devastating news there should have been a room for privacy - not a blue curtain, with 3 other patients clearly hearing our news and upset.

We were given a leaflet and we left the hospital an hour later - knowing we'd be going home to break the news to my dad.

Sadly my mum died 3 months later, but during those months the one thing mum kept mentioning was the way we were told the news, mum hated the fact her children had to hear this behind a curtain.

I would hate the think other families to go through the same and would like the hospital to consider how and where news like this should be broken.