"Families are fighting to be heard"

It has taken me and my family 6 months to share this experience- mainly due to the level of anger and disappointment from an experience in Antrim ED late last year.

My father-in-law was suffering from acute confusion and had a subsequent fall and head injury. Prior to this he was an independent man with a job and this was certainly a huge shock for us and for him.

On arrival to ED my husband never left his side - he was so confused that he didn’t even know who he was speaking to. We want to acknowledge the swift action of triage and doctors as within an hour there was an assessment an  a CT scan which showed nothing neurological. Sadly this was where the care ended.

He was moved to an 8-bedded unit in urgent care and there we stayed for 10hours - no update from the nurse, no observations taken, his wound was not cleaned, no food, no fluids and family could not leave him to even eat as he was incredible confused and completely lost.

I went up at 1am in the morning to let his son get away and bring some food and drink. This is basic care and so I asked who his allocated nurse was. The nurse I was directed to was on their first agency shift - they had not been never been in the department before, they received no orientation or induction, they didn’t have a pass to get any medicines and when asked who was in charge of this area they said -  no one.

I requested to speak to the nurse in charge as every nurse I spoke to said this was not their area. There was no other patients  there… why was he left there to be forgotten for 10 hours?

The nurse in charge finally arrived to say they were moving him and asked  - are you happy now? I was astounded that a deputy sister would address family in such a way. They did not acknowledge our concerns about the lack of basic care, lack of observations or the fact he appeared to be deteriorating.

For me, if this is an example of the leadership within this department, then it goes some way to explaining the chaos - families are fighting to be heard- we can help support better care for our loved ones but this means nurses and their managers need to listen. This incident is nearly 6months ago now- I am sharing this in the hope that someone will listen and take steps to ensure families are listened to.