"Couldn’t be bothered!"

After months of miss diagnosis from the GP (since beginning of August) after my father complained of pain in his arm & the right side of his chest, losing a large amount of weight he couldn’t afford to lose over a 3 week period, losing the use of his left side & still being told his lungs were clear & vital signs were fine By the GP & paramedics he finally felt so unwell on Christmas Day he knew something was majorly wrong. He insisted on being taken to A& E. A man who never complained or went to the GP for nothing.

A consultant Medical doctor decided it might be Parkinson’s without a scan & knowing his history red flags should have been waving like mad. As he was classed as chronic  rather then acute he was discharged Boxing Day vomiting, eating nothing & barely drinking. Yet again we had to call the on-call GP to get him antiemetics.

After another uneventful paramedic visit & being convinced it’s probably Parkinson’s we called the GP again who thought it was a stroke on 3rd Jan. After a 7hr wait in A& E a doctor decided there was too much going wrong & sent my dad for a scan. He had brain metastasis & primary lung cancer with weeks to live. He passed away in February.

I have stewed on this & the diabolical treatment my dad received since last August but also the treatment he received at monklands. Both visits he waited hours & as our experience showed, when admitted at Christmas no one was interested in scanning him or treating him with any urgency & a guess diagnosis was given which didn't inconvenience anyone.

On his 2nd night as an inpatient he was due for another scan on the 5th Jan at 1pm. He & 5 others were transported to the CT scanner at 1am for over an hour in freezing conditions when it wasn’t even in use at that time of night. My dad was hallucinating severely due to the metastasis so on returning to the ward he ask for his oxycodone which apart from pain relief also helps him to sleep.

He couldn’t reach his buzzer as it had fallen down the side of the bed (no one had put it in reach) & as his dexterity on his right side was so bad couldn’t reach it. He asked for help & was rudely told to be quiet. He asked for his medication but was also told it was too late. He spent the rest of the night in pain & hallucinating. He did keep quiet but was in tears when I visited. A gentleman who had been told he was terminal! ! I complained & it didn’t happen again. On going home he was supposed to be referred to the McMillan nurses but that never happened. Although some staff were lovely it was “a luck of the draw” who you got & how they treated you. I’m most annoyed that he was never fully investigated on Christmas Day. I’ll keep that in mind with any of my family in future as things seem to get done in half measures at a leisurely pace if they can be bothered while eating a Chinese takeaway! !