"The staff in this hospital only care is..."

Anything else?

Over the past 4 years I have dealt with Darlington memorial hospital with the care of my wife and elderly aunt.

In that time I have seen the standards drop dramatically from a well run hospital and caring staff to what I can only describe as a shambles.

In recent months I have experience the following:

1.Misdiagnosis

2.Lack of communication

3.Moving patience’s from ward/hospital to ward/hospital in the middle of the night and failing to inform the next of kin where there relative has been moved to

4.Staff discharging patience’s who are unfit to be discharged and without the recommended aftercare put in place

5.Unacceptable delays in patience’s appointments times – upwards of an hour past appointment times due to overcrowding time slots and patience’s given inadequate time slots for they needs.

One of the most recent incidence was they were going to discharge my wife on the Thursday afternoon before Good Friday and when I asked was care put in place to start that evening I was told that it wasn’t and nothing could be arrange until paperwork was filled out and sent to the relevant department could take two weeks or more?. Eventually a member of the discharge team came to see us on the ward and she told us that they had not even been informed of her discharge! And if my wife would remain in hospital she would get things moving.

The outcome of this was another two days in hospital.

This episode left my wife upset and in tears and I have been hearing about other persons with the same sorry tales.

So much for a caring hospital!