"The care that my elderly father received in the ERI"

Firstly, when dad was admitted to the emergency department he was made to wait for 5 hours in a very cold, busy, noisy and confusing environment. At the age of 89 (a few days from 90) this was, in my opinion a disgrace. I had to put my jacket around him and ask for a blanket, which took a while to be provided. We were not kept informed and I had to ask for assistance to help dad use the toilet and provide him with a cup of water. Dad was clearly very unwell, weak and I felt should have been a priority. There were many other people there who seemed to be wandering around wasting the time of the staff.

Eventually, dad was admitted to acute care and the next day to a ward.

During the three weeks in the ward before dad passed away I was shocked and sickened by the lack of staff and the duties that nurses were asked to carry out; instead of spending time caring for the patients they were dishing out meals and cleaning the wards. This is totally unacceptable in a civilized society. The government should be utterly ashamed. I felt helpless and deeply saddened that my wonderful father had to tolerate this sub-standard care. I even had to bring in a blanket and pillows from home as there were none in the hospital. What a disgrace this has deteriorated to.

The individual nurses and doctors were professional and gave what they could in ridiculous circumstances. They are clearly over-worked and this must, without a doubt, impact on the care and attention that patients require and are entitled to; (dad) having paid for many, many years and up until that time had rarely needed the NHS.

What about human rights? It's time to look at the people born and bred in Scotland and improve this system, which in my opinion, is not worthy of the 21 century. As far as I'm concerned, we've regressed.

Something very positive need to be done now.