"Appalling Patient Care"

On Friday 10th August 2018, my father was referred to Heartlands A&E urgently by his GP following his discharge from hospital after a major spinal operation. Due to very low heamoglobin levels shown on blood tests indicating internal blood loss, he was asked by the GP to be seen urgently at A&E. The GP contacted the hospital directly so that they knew to expect him and also provided a very detailed letter to the hospital with instructions on where he needed to go.

My father arrived at the hospital at approx 5:30pm and a very clueless receptionist greeted him and asked him to take a seat in the waiting room (despite his evident discomfort being 5 days out of major spinal surgery!). My father reiterated numerous times that there were details on the letter which indicated which ward he needed to go to, but the receptionist dismissively insisted that he wait in the main waiting area. As his pain intensified, and a couple of hours had passed, we asked again what was going on as we were assured 2 hrs prior that there were only 2 patients ahead of him. Again the receptionist insisted he wait.

At 8pm after a number of hours of waiting, and to-ing and fro-ing with the receptionist, we approached the reception for the millionth time, during which time a nurse overheard the conversation and intervened as she realised that the incredibly incompetent receptionist had not read the letter properly. As such, it transpired that my father was not meant to be in the waiting room and was in fact meant to have been admitted to the medical ward upon arrival to the hospital!

The nurse wheeled my dad into the ward rather aggressively and smacked the wheelchair against a door as she did so. Evidently, she had also not read the notes either as she claimed to have not realised that he was a number of days out of a major spinal operation!

Once on the ward, nobody seemed to know who he was or why he was there. We were then informed that a doctor would attend to see him and take further bloods. Within moments a porter appeared to wheel him out for an x-ray. 20 minutes later, my father reappeared and informed us that they had mixed patient records up and the x-ray wasn't in fact for him after all! Not surprising considering the porter did not ask his name before carting him off!

They then hastened to take him across to another ward altogether where he was then not seen until almost 9pm. Everyone seemed completely clueless. He was then discharged and asked to return for further blood tests 2 days later.

The general staff etiquette is appalling and patient care and bed side manner is non existent. It is shocking to think that an administrator these days is not competent enough to read a GP letter. Porters do not follow due diligence checks and merely follow the instructions of incompetent, careless nurses.

It is absolutely no wonder this hospital has the reputation that it does as being "Heartless Hospital"- I would definitely recommend steering clear!