"Seen as an inconvenience"

My papa was in this ward for 7 months and I can honestly say it was the most distressing 7 months, so much so that 2 years later it still bothers me. I wish I had made a formal complaint at the time. Admitted with a UTI and a TIA it wasn’t until 3 months down the line when my mum begged for a multidisciplinary meeting at my partners advice ( a lot of hassle as staff appeared to see it as a bother and some didn’t bother to turn up for the first two that were arranged ) that she was told he had actually been admitted with sepsis not a uti. WHY was sepsis not mentioned until months down the line?!

Constantly moving him from ward to side room because he was disoriented and disruptive during the evening. I highly doubt the constant change of room helped his state of confusion. As a family we felt he was getting passed from pillar to post. We made a point of speaking to a nurse every visit and were always told he was ok until one day myself and boyfriend where pounced on outside the room by a senior nurse and an other nurse. I only know it was a senior nurse because of the uniform as they didn’t introduce themself. We were told in no uncertain terms that my papa was a terrible patient and it couldn’t go on much longer. That he had dementia which showed on his CT and didn’t belong in a hospital. This came as a shock as we were told previously CT scans had been clear, and the fact we were told this in a busy corridor took me off guard. I had to walk away because I was so upset. The conversation was continued without me with my boyfriend, who felt it most inappropriate seeing as he wasn’t immediate family. I will never forget that nurse's attitude and total lack of empathy. Seemingly no desire to comfort or reassure. The communication on a whole was non-existent. Multiple times we were told my papa was away for scans of this or scans of that but they couldn’t tell us why and when pressed we were told the results were fine so it didn’t matter.

The only positive thing I can say is that nursing assistants are worth their weight in gold in that ward as it felt like they were the only ones interested in patients. I don’t think I ever spoke to the same nurse twice and each one showed very little interest or knowledge. My papa is now in a wonderful care home but it breaks my heart the way he was treated in hospital. His illness was seen as an inconvenience and the fact it changed his personality was not accounted for.