"Surgical assessment Unit Forth Valley Royal"

My husband, who was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in 2018 began to suffer from severe constipation recently. As he had been prescribed  a number of different laxatives because of it being a side effect of morphine, we tried various ways to solve the problem but by this week he had also suffered a number of dizzy spells so he went to his GP who referred him to the SAU.

That afternoon he was told he needed bed rest before an MRI the following morning. He was also given stronger steroids than his usual 1 a day. After the MRI the following day he was given food and waited for further information. Visiting was very limited and it was impossible to ring for information because after 32 attempts the phone had not been answered. At 7.30 pm my husband rang to ask me to pick him up. He had been told very little information and had no discharge information.

As his carer I sort his tablets and had boxed them all in a carrier bag which he brought home. His main cancer tablet had not been given and there was a box with 1 steroid tablet and a label for an unknown female patient in the bag. He was still in considerable pain and discomfort which continued through the night.

At 4.30 am I rang the SAU for advice and was told to ring 111. They told me that a prescription would be at the chemists for 10 am. At 10 15 the chemist had no prescription. The urology specialist nurse phone was on answer machine.  In phoning the GP we discovered there seemed to be no plan but was told they would try to contact the ward and to ring back at 3.30pm if we had heard nothing. The urology nurse rang and said she would try to get the consultant to ring. The GPS's pharmacist rang at 3pm to tell us that 1 of his blood pressure tablets had been discontinued until a blood test next week. Unfortunately as we did not have that information at discharge he had taken it this morning. Eight hours after discharge he is still in considerable pain and constipated and we both feel as though we have been pulled through the wringer. His mental health was fragile before his cancer diagnosis and this experience has made it so much worse. Considering we now have computerised systems rather than paper records the communication system is not working. The patient is not at the centre of this care but flailing about in the void.