"My father's pad was not changed"

My father was admitted to AMU in the last couple of months (not sure exact dates).

He was admitted to the ward during handover. This is where we left him and went home.

The next morning we got a call saying he would be discharged but we were not home to receive him - he's wheelchair bound. We said we would be home after 2pm and the nurse said they will call then.

2pm came and went. 4pm came. By 6pm we have been on the phone trying to contact AMU to no avail since 5pm. When we got through, the staff said that no one was answering the phone because they were all doing medication. Now I'm sorry but what if I were a doctor or someone of importance? ?

They then transferred me to another person who then said my father was not on the ward! Even though we had been told that morning that he would be discharged.

Then they found out that he had been picked up by the discharge lounge to which they put me through. They then stated that he has already left with the ambulance!

Now after hours and hours of trying to find out what was happening, we had a mere 15-20 mins headsup of my father's discharge as he was on his way home.

On arrival, we checked his pad - this was the same pad he was wearing 24 hours earlier, and we also stated to staff on his admission he had a conveen. Staff rang us earlier that day to ask if his catheter was long term - they would have seen it was a conveen if they had bothered to remove the pad and check.

All in all this was one hell of an annoying situation that I hope will not be repeated to anyone.

Communication needs to be established properly with patient's relatives and checking of patient's properly.

I also work as a nurse and it saddens me that simple things like this cannot be done properly