"Medical providers not nurses"

Don't expect anything other than basic medical care. Forget communication or any attempt to co-ordinate with families.

Our 80 year old Mum was admitted early hours of Friday morning 3rd Jan and spent the first 11 hours on a stretcher in casualty.

By 7am she was pleading to go home. Placed on Ward 28 and anyone trying to make contact with this ward will have a Herculean effort to get any phone answered.

When it is answered the person you need to speak to is always someone else and busy. The man I spoke to at 1645 said " I have not been dealing with this woman!" I had to remind him that "this woman" was my Mum and his patient. Many promises of calling back were unfulfilled and I would have had better luck getting blood from a stone than this uncaring arrogant rude lot of staff. There is an arrogance and disregard running through this hospital.

When we visited and we asked why the phones rang until they disconnect we were once again told they were busy. Quite with what I'm unsure as the nurses were rarely seen at the patient beside but huddled round their nurse stations where the very phones they ignore are ringing.

She was transferred to Ward 18 where the staff could not be faulted but what is at fault is the disregard for keeping patients and their families in the dark. Pitch black in fact. Lots of empty promises of callbacks which never happened. Anyway, after visiting on Monday and leaving at 1930 my Mum rang us to say they were discharging her. I rang the ward and was told that yes, this was correct and another apology for not contacting us so we could at least try and co-ordinate it. With both me and my sister living 80 miles away in different directions we were assured we would be phoned once her medications had been sorted. This never happened-what a surprise.

7 hours later and our Mum was still waiting to be discharged. In that time not a single contact from the hospital. We rang and asked why on earth it takes 7 hours for a patient to have medications sorted and would it really be safe to discharge an elderly lady home alone and in the dark to an empty home after spending a week in hospital.

So as the hospital cannot co-ordinate itself, she stayed another unnecessary night but we were promised we would be called when she was being discharged so we could arrange for someone to meet her. Did this happen? Of course not.

Anyone calling themselves a nurse would be able to think about the bigger picture and consider all aspects of the patient's care. But not this hospital. They really do not care.

It doesn't matter who you speak to it's all the same - lack of information, co-ordination, ability to answer phones, sharing information, recording information, forward thinking and probably more than anything staff who care and are committed to a holistic approach to nursing.

They do what they want with a complete disregard for the impact on patient's and their families.