"Dereliction of duty"

Last Year our elderly Mother who for many years was being seen regularly by various Consultants at Nevill Hall Hospital ,Abergavenny for many serious conditions, had we recognized as a family , developed Vascular Dementia a fact which the Hospital eventually agreed with,this made providing her care requirements very difficult

She was admitted to this Hospital on numerous occasions during last year.On one occasion obviously very seriously ill,she was discharged the day after being admitted.Leading to an Emergency admission by Flashing Blue Light Ambulance the following day.We had to on a number of occasions protest vehemently to stop this happening again.

On visiting her on the Medical Assessment Unit Ward,we found her wandering around the Ward.She was at this time extremely confused,a fact we had pointed out previously to the Staff their because of our concerns she could fall out of bed and hurt herself.We found some of the staff on this unit to be extremely unhelpful and in one case very rude.We always make allowances because of the pressure and things that staff have to deal with but the lack of care was unacceptable.

Upon being admitted and transferred up to a Ward her lack of treatment was deplorable.Apart from a few nurses,who ensured that she ate and drank something if one of the family could not be their at meal times to feed her,she could have starved to death or become totally dehydrated,causing the disorentation again.

One problem,a leg had broken skin,a problem she was discharged with on her previous stay their.A fact with her being diabetic that we had pointed out to them,without any avail.This leg progressively deteriorated,we kept bringing this to the attention of various senior staff members,expressing our growing concern at the severity of the leg problem.On one occasion her foot was black ,we knew the implications of this and raised this matter with staff.This led to the leg being totally concealed by dressings.It began to smell ,our Mother was asking about this,as we were because of the implications.On one occasion upon asking a Sister on the Ward,we were told it was a new type of dressing,something we did not believe.Another senior staff member on the Ward was particularly rude when we asked about our Mothers condition.Because of the very evident smell emanating around the Ward our mother was put in a side room.She also had to endure on a couple of occasions bouts of C.Difficile and it's effects.

Throughout this time we had only once been given any information from the Surgical team our Mother was under.Mum was obviously extremely poorly by now,suddenly they wanted to Transfer her to a Community Hospital where their was much less Health care available.We as a family stopped this happening as it was patently not in her best interests.

They were telling us that the Surgeon was on leave for two weeks and a problem that had been identified with blood supply to her foot needed surgery ,so they were trying to get a bed at another hospital where that Surgical team could deal with it but no bed was available.

Her health deteriorated further and as we had been doing all along we were trying to get the medical attention she so obviously desperately needed,though by now we thought it much too late,she was in excruciating pain.

We extracted the truth from the Staff that as we had been saying for some time our Mum had Septicaemia.Suddenly the Surgical team said they were transferring her to another hospital to amputate her leg.We rushed to Nevill Hall and got to the Ward with the Paramedics their waiting to take her.We expressed our total disagreement to the transfer and proposed surgery and eventually stopped this move because she was very clearly not well enough to move.

Our Mother who we wanted to have relief from her agony was then very heavily sedated and at last she received Specialist nursing care from very caring,kind staff leading up to her death their on the ward.

We have condensed the facts of a very traumatic ,sad event but feel thet the unnecessary suffering caused to our Mum and ourselves is inexcusable.The patient if possible and the relatives should be kept informed of any developements,concerns etc.We endlessly asked for facts and our concerns without being listened too. We find this to be totally unnacceptable.