"Poor care and lack of compassion"

During my dad’s stay, it was apparent that there was a noticeable lack of supervision. At several points, he was left unattended for extended periods despite being in a vulnerable condition that required regular monitoring. This absence of oversight caused significant distress and raised serious concerns about patient safety and duty of care.

Additionally, communication from the clinical team was poor. We were repeatedly told that staff were busy, and no regular updates were provided regarding my dad’s condition or treatment plan. At one point I was told by a healthcare support worker that all of the nurses are doing dressings and one is on her lunch break so there is no one to update you now. This lack of information left us as a family, feeling anxious and uncertain, often having to seek out answers myself—something no family or patient should have to do whilst in hospital.

In the early hours of the morning my dad was woken abruptly by staff turning on his light and packing away his belongings (he thinks this may have been around 2am) and he was told he was moving as A&E was jumping and they need this room. I would like to know who thinks that this is acceptable any time of the day never mind at 2am. I appreciate patients may need to be moved wards but there are more professional ways to do this.

I fully acknowledge the pressures faced by healthcare staff, particularly in busy hospital environments. However, I believe that every patient deserves to be treated with dignity, compassion, and professionalism. Unfortunately, this experience did not reflect these values. I myself have worked within the NHS for many years now, working in many different environments, and whilst I appreciate how stressful it can be to work within a ward environment, there is no need for poor care and lack of compassion.

This may not be a representation of all of the staff that work within ward 4 in Monklands but it was very clear to me that their morale is low and maybe they have forgotten why they decided to get in to healthcare in the first instance.

My dad has family members that are able to voice these concerns, but there are many people who do not have a support network and the thought of this saddens me as if they were to receive substandard care who is helping them.