"Poor care in the CCU ward at RAH"

My mother was transferred here from the Jubilee Hospital after having suffered a massive heart attack.

On her admission she sat at her bedside without so much as a glass of water. My brother went to the kitchen and filled a jug of water for her when we arrived at visiting time. She was later offered scotch pie and chips for her dinner as that was all they had left. (Heart attack patient....really? ).

The following day at visiting I could see her IV antibiotics were complete and there was air in her line. I informed a nurse of this and she replied that she would get to my mum in half an hour. (Is she uneducated in air embolus? ). I offered to close the IV and she said yes, that would be great. (I am a qualified nurse but this nurse did not know this and had never seen me before in her life.) She allowed a visitor to touch her patients IV line.

On my mums discharge we arrived with her clothes to take her home, only to find her sitting alone in a public corridor in her nightwear, completely stripped of her dignity. I approached the ward sister and told her I was disgusted with the care my mum had received and this was the final straw.

She told me to write a letter of complaint if I was not happy. I did exactly that! My mother received a poor excuse for a letter of apology.