"My fathers lack of care"

I took my 90 yr old father to hospital the for urinary retention. He has dementia, prostate cancer and had recently had a catheter change by District nurses. He became agitated, developed pyrexia and pulled out his catheter. Presumably because the catheter change had given him urinary sepsis!

I called 111 and waited an hour but still didn’t get through so took him to Forth Valley Royal Hospital (FVRH).

We waited over an hour before he was triaged. We’re then taken into a bay as a priority to be catheterised. By this time it had been 16 hours that father had been in urinary retention which we pointed out. Whilst in this bay I observed that there were 3 doctors all sitting chatting at computers. I never saw one move!

I questioned one as to when father would be seen. Their answer was 3-4 hours. When I said this was unacceptable and asked why a nurse could not catheterise him they then agreed for that to be done.

I had to then ask that it would be advisable to take a picture urine sample which they came back and done. I then said we would go home and get GP to follow up, as by this time father was stressed and exhausted.

Only then did the doctors get up and come over to say he would need to take bloods as the 16 hr urinary retention could have caused Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). Surely if the doctor was concerned about this why was bloods not the first think that was taken. When I explained that home was the best place for father with his dementia and the length of his stay the doctor developed an unacceptable attitude, almost trying to turn their (I felt) incompetence and laziness onto me. They said I’d need to wait another hour for bloods. I brought father home and am being followed up by his GP.

This standard of care is not acceptable. Neither is the doctors attitude that the hospital can’t deal with the volume of patients so they think it’s ok for us to accept this and them to lose their compassion and duty of care. I would like my complaint registered with your complaints department and subsequent feedback

I’m disgusted at the lack of duty of care but more so at the attitude that it’s acceptable by doctors