"Changes to my relative in 9 Weeks"

My mother in law who is in her late eighties has vascular dementia has for past 5 weeks as stayed with the st Francis unit at city hospital on Daybrook ward and I just want to point out that the care there was 2nd to none they were friendly, polite cared and all over damn amazing …..a few days ago we got a call from them mum in law not well fast heart high temperature needed to go to qmc in Nottingham.

She went through A and E they found she had a raging u.t.i again she's prone to them (has catheter insitu) so had to wait from 11 pm till nearly tea time next day to get a bed on a ward, we could not get we spoke to the ward she was ok asleep had been awake for days and nights now the norm for her and she had finally fell asleep so we visited Tuesday she was still asleep.

Nurse re assured us she was fine we took clean nighties etc but nothing else we could do so we went back, we see her every other day, to say we were shocked was a under statement. She had eaten nothing, could not. Drunk nothing. I looked in her mouth and could see the worst case of thrush I had ever seen her tongue and lips were coated in a white and cream mess (I should point out I am a highly trained health care worker been doing job 30 years now) my husband tried to speak to a nurse who just pushed past him like dirt totally ignoring, I went to find a dr who did come to see mum and did say yes it was bad and would sort out meds for it.

I found that the staff there were rude and made her feel like dirt her hands and face encrusted in food meds and god knows what else her bedding was filthy and she was crying wanting help but they were cheesed off she had been shouting all night, so a couple of days later comes we find the same thing again. No one gives any answers to why this is happening sooooo we get to the next day.

My son goes to visit his gran to find she has total moved to another ward. nobody rang to inform us from either ward she is now on a different ward. She has a what looks to us like a pile of slop for lunch just left in front of her, she's not eaten or drank anything until my son and daughter in law get her a cup of coffee which she wolfed down, let me tell you this is going further. I am not letting it lie, complaints will be made and if the treatment carries on I will get a solicitor involved. This lady may have dementia and be in her late 80ies but 9 weeks ago she was normal, just forgetful. We feel that we have lost this lady in 9 weeks, she went into the q.m.c and I think she has been treated awfully.

She is treated like she should not be on those wards because she has dementia. Need the toilet she's not well because she's not human. The care staff (and I say that very loosely) have been in our view ignorant, self centred and general don't show care at all. The nurses are even worse, they wont give out any info regarding my relative we found out also that on her last stint at qmc she had pneumonia which we were never informed about on that ward.

So, I leave you with this, dear reader. If I had another loved one who had taken care of me for all my life and then needs care themselves, I would never again let them go to qmc. And on these wards for the elderly, our experience is that when they say they have not been fed changed or had a drink because they wont have had anything, most times it was put there left and taken away cold. My mum in law gone from size 20-12 because the food so bad and what we did get ordered for her she did not get, yet at the st francis unit, she was eating and drinking again and waiting to go to her new nursing home.