"Catalogue of failings with hospital admission"

Mum was admitted to AU1 at the Victoria in Kirkcaldy after being sent to A&E with back pain from the GP. She is immunocompromised so had a side room.

Usually AU1 are OK but this time, it was horrendous. She was away for an MRI when the nurse took details from me to book her in. They couldn't finish without mum there so asked me to buzz them when she was taken back and left her notes and medicines that mum had taken in with me. I waited about an hour but she hadn't come back and I had to get home to my children. I lurked in the hallway, trying to get someone's attention but was ignored. When I finally stopped and asked a couple of nurses in the hallway to take charge of them as I didn't want just to leave them but got variations of "It's not my job/I am not on that team." Eventually, I left the notes and put her medicines away in the wardrobe and left.

When I came back a couple of hours later, my mum told me that she'd basically been dumped in the room and left. Her notes had gone but her medicines hadn't been checked and secured and she had no ID band on her wrist. They hadn't given her the buzzer, it was still secured on the wall and moving around was very difficult and painful. She told me that she had had to shout for help to go to the toilet which has made me very angry indeed. Why are we in a situation where an elderly woman with a brain tumour and severe back pain has to shout in an NHS hospital? I had to give her the buzzer.

She had had no pain relief and no one had come to check whether she needed any. She needed an extra pillow for her back so I went and found a nurse who said "Oh, I am not on that team but I will get one in a minute.". They didn't and half an hour later, we pressed the buzzer. It rang for so long that it stopped of its own accord, possibly up to 45 minutes, so we had to press it again. Still no one came. I stopped a nurse in the hallway, I was very angry at this point, and told them of all the problems. They at least were good and phoned the team in charge of mum to get someone. At that point it was staff handover so it was 10 minutes or so before someone could come. They took charge and gave her some pain relief so I left her for the night.

She said she was woken up several times overnight with nurses who had questions that could have been addressed in the evening and was told after midnight that she was to be moved to another ward! She protested and this eventually did not happen.

I spoke to her the next morning at 9 and she said that no one had been in until 10 minutes before to bring her breakfast. She still hadn't been properly booked in (no wristband) and had been given no pain relief.

What if she had had a heart attack? Or breathing problems? No one came until I had gone out and complained loudly to a nurse (who at least was helpful!).

She didn't but another, more vulnerable, patient could have died.