"TERRIBLE CARE"

My 89 year old father who has dementia was admitted to Medical Short Stay Unit on with chest infection and UTI. Staff had catheterised him which caused an awful situation to get worse, if staff had mentioned to family we could have told them he would find this too traumatic, but no they went ahead. He was crying and agitated today and thankfully by the time I got there it had been removed, but caused him a great deal of distress and trauma. He was very cold when I got there, he does not have the mental capacity to tell anyone. The nurse did his stats and said he was too cold for precise readings and got him a cup of tea to warm him up. If he isn't prompted he will not know to drink tea, I asked for a blanket and was handed a paper thin one. When lunch came eventually I could see he was ravenously hungry and I fed him. I asked the nurse if he'd eaten anything she said he'd been 'given' breakfast, no-one had noticed that he wouldn't remember to actually eat it. No-one prompted him to drink. I asked the nurse about his infection status, she didn't know, i asked to speak to the doctor, 'doctors will be here soon to discuss' - no one came. I found out later that he would be discharged tomorrow, they'd informed his care home and this turned out to be when I was sitting there with him, so it would be on the information read remotely in the meeting from the imprecise stats done whilst i was there. No-one there to speak to when asked the nursing assistant she said to ask the nurse, I asked the nurse who said to ask the doctor but the doctor not available. They had no background information on him, knew nothing about him or his past medical history. All was done on a computer system that barely seems to work. I feel sorry for anyone who goes there. 48 beds, hardly any staff, no care, no information, no-one to ask anything, no coordination of care, miserable overworked staff who don't know anything. Seems only the strongest might survive if you're really ill - what a place, must be terrible if you have no-one to help you. Oh and of course you have to find parking first, if you ever need to get there in an emergency god help you. PS have had to put 'Don't know' for department because I can't even find this unit listed.