"Unacceptable level of care"

After a nine hour wait for an ambulance my husband was admitted to A&E via the ortho team, where he lay for 15hrs on a trolley before being moved to an overflow/surge ward.

We are now about 36hrs in and he has seen a doctor once, 6hrs after admission, while still on the trolley and that's it. No other doctor input.

The doctor did not write up notes suitable for A&E nurses to actually provide pain relief, writing only analgesia - not what/when/how. As you can imagine this caused no end of problems.

There has been an absolute lack of communication or help, with no nurse we've spoken to having any real detail, knowledge, or for a long time, notes of my husband's case.

An MRI was ordered and has been read, we have been told for almost a full day now that someone from ortho will be around soon to discuss. There is an outcome, a nurse who probably shouldn't have, has given brief details but said the consultant does need to explain/discuss.

Not one nurse has actually managed to raise a consultant, or despite multiple requests, actually get a doctor to speak to a patient.

In our experience, there is an absolute failure of care for patients in this department, it is appalling the level of pain and fear patients are being left with - and nursing staff aren't even empowered to help.

The nursing staff, CSAs, porter team, etc have all been fantastic but their hands are tied, they can't actually help patients when ortho won't help them.