"Seemingly good clinical care but very poor…"

My son was in Fishbourne Ward for 3 months, unable to communicate for himself due to brain damage. No visiting allowed therefore I was ENTIRELY DEPENDENT on Ward for information the obtaining of which was like pulling teeth. Phone calls unanswered 60% of the time; promises by doctors to provide a weekly update ("it's on our whiteboard") unfulfilled; some staff quite clearly uninformed or not prepared to find-out (on one occasion I was even asked what medication the patient was on!! Hard to believe but true); promises to return calls ignored. As far as I'm able to judge (not having seen the patient for 3 months) the medical care given on this ward seems to be satisfactory (despite Consultants operating a revolving door policy which doesn't help continuity) but my experience leaves me with no doubts that communication with relatives leaves considerable room for improvement and comes well down their list of priorities, relatives seemingly viewed as a nuisance best treated like mushrooms.

There appears to be a lack of understanding on the Ward that, particularly when a patient is unable to communicate and visiting is prohibited, the Ward is the only source of information & has sole responsibility for liaising effectively with relatives and ensuring that accurate and timely information is provided. On FOUR separate occasions I had to request the Patient Liaison Service to intervene (which they did successfully) in order to obtain a response from Fishbourne but nothing improved as a result and it reset to zero every time.

The only exception to the foregoing are the Discharge personnel who kept me quite well-informed thank you.

The whole episode has been stressful beyond words, made far worse by the mediocre and apparently uncaring attitude of the Ward towards communicating with relatives.

I am not a neurotic or unreasonably demanding person and I've been extremely disappointed by this aspect of a hospital rated "Outstanding".