"Lack of nursing input and ward atmosphere"

My husband was admitted to A/E Ninewells by ambulance with pneumonia

A/E care was good, waited from the morning on a trolley until evening time for a bed in AMU (acute medical unit)

At no point was I informed as a relative that AMU do not answer their ward phone at specific times, the switchboard told me in the evening

I live 45 mins away and my husband had a mobile but he was very unwell, breathless, on O2, high temperature with the infection and of course slightly muddled due also to the infection. He was unable to use mobile phone

Visited next morning and he had been moved in the early hours to a single room in the Respiratory Unit where he was comfortable on intravenous antibiotics but high temperature persisted

Medical staff (not a consultant) gave me an update on his condition remembering he was a fit active man who had become acutely unwell very quickly so we as a family were very concerned. I was happy with the update

I left him at 5pm and tried to contact ward early evening with no success

Later that night I was contacted by the ward twice to tell me my husband was confused (due to infection) and aggressive!! And could I speak to him to try and calm him down 

What I didn't know was he had been moved from single room in the late evening and placed in a 6 bedded female ward! Well no wonder he was confused!

The nurse on the second phone call very late was quoting the incapacity act as he was elderly; what they were planning to do I have no idea (surely not sectioning him)as his whole situation was down to his Medical condition

Security were also present and he was very  frightened and so was I because having been a nurse myself I couldn't understand them not coping with this situation and the unnecessary distress they were causing

In the morning I visited and there he was in a female bay so dishevelled and scared until he saw me, he was quite disorientated and I washed him, changed his pyjamas and spoke with the medical staff who  were unaware of situation overnight

I looked for a staff member who eventually came to the bedside and proceeded to speak to my husband and I as though we were senile and kept saying he was elderly and the same age as her father. What relevance that had was a mystery to me! I said I was not happy but that was I felt ignored and from then on my poor husband had little in the way of caring nurses and chat with anyone in the ward 

He was not moved into a male bay for another 24 hours

I did all his care until the morning of his discharge when a new male auxiliary gave him a shower

He had been 6 days in that ward

I observed various professionals throughout his stay on their iPad sitting at the end of each bay not interacting with patients 

When he received his discharge letter the prescription he was given had the wrong dose on it but thankfully I had checked it 

He was discharged on a Sunday though a new Consultant thought he should go on the Sat but had failed to notice he was still on O2 and intravenous antibiotics

My son came from Edinburgh at the weekend and thankfully reassured me that I was not imagining the lack of nursing input and the ward atmosphere

I had told no one I was a nurse of 42 years