"Poor communication in the local NHS"

My 85 year old mum has been having weekly magnesium infusions at the local hospital for almost two years. I say 'local hospital' but it is a 25 mile round trip.

Every Monday she has a blood test to determine her magnesium levels and depending on the results is how much magnesium she has on the Tuesday. The appointment on Tuesdays takes at least 3 hours each time. Last week she was telephoned by the hospital to say her magnesium levels were good and she did not need that week's appointment. This has happened twice before in the last two years and each time she was ill before the next week's appointment came. This Monday  we took her for her blood test as normal. The trouble is she did not have the blood request form as she had missed the hospital appointment the previous week and they give it to her. So the nurse has to guess what to request bloods for. This week she said she would do a few things, not just magnesium.

On Monday evening the Devon Doctors called her at home and said she had to go straight to A&E as her kidney function was dangerously worrying. They said A&E would be expecting them. My husband and I took her to the A&E department 12 miles away and they did not know why she was there. No one had informed them. It was now 8pm. The wait in A&E was at least 6 hours. I had to leave my mum in a waiting room, on a hard chair with no food or drink available.

I started to go home and stopped the car to call the Devon Docs to see if they could expedite her through. I finally got through to them after 20 minutes and spoke to a real person. They put me on hold while they looked into it and then cut me off. Rather than waste anymore time I drove back to the hospital to speak to the receptionist at A&E who said they still had no call about my mum. I spoke with mum and she decided she would rather come home than wait 6 hours in there. Remember she is 85 years old in frail health, weighs less than 6 stone.

The next day I took her back at 1.30 for her regular magnesium appointment and from there she was admitted straight to the Medical Assessment Unit. She is severely dehydrated and needs a lot of fluid to bring her back up. This was only picked up because the practice nurse requested more than the normal blood work. My main gripe is that Devon Doctors did not send her straight to the Medical Assessment Unit but told her to go to A&E instead. No one should wait 6 hours at her age.

I fail to understand why A&E takes so long. Most people I could see did not have limbs hanging off, or being sick, or crying in pain. It surely cannot take 6 hours to get through that waiting room even if there is only one doctor on who takes two breaks in that time. It is an utter outrage.