"Catalogue of errors"

Anything else?

Over the past two years I've had the misfortune of spending time at Hereford hospital. It saddens me to say that Hereford is an unreliable, understaffed and a dangerous hospital. When my grandad was admitted a week before Christmas. Once on the ward the doctors took one look at his age (91) and weren't enthusiastic about treating him. After being placed on the Liverpool Care Pathway (a scheme designed to ease pain and suffering in ones final days) he was totally ignored by staff. On several occasions we asked for pain relief and had to wait hours for it, not because the nurses had to wait for a doctor to prescribe it but because they were too busy discussing Christmas. On another occasion when visiting my grandads name, written on the board above his bed had been changed. After several times if asking we eventually got a marker and changed it back. No explanation was ever given. As my grandad was dying he was placed in a room with two other gentlemen. One was a drug addict, he made no secret of this, who insisted on smoking out the window in the room. With my grandad dying and the other patient with lung problems the staff did nothing to stop this. My grandad was eventually moved to a private room, where he passed away on Christmas morning. After receiving the phone call to inform us of his death, we were told merry Christmas...not exactly what we wanted to hear. During the whole process we were poorly informed about what was going on. Unfortunately this was the same during my mums recent spell in the day case unit. Before even getting to this ward my mum was in a&e. Placed in the obbs area the nurse on duty fell asleep twice when she should have been monitering patients. They then tried to send my mum home,although she was in imence pain. It was only because she had a turn in front of the doctors that they decided to admit her. Once on the day case ward (where she stayed for over a week) none of the family ever saw a doctor. Even when when went at a time to intentionally see them we were not allowed. This made it a difficult and distressing time as mum was on strong pain killers which effected her ability to absorb information. When the problem was eventually identified, we realised everything could have been avoided if Hereford hospital had done a procedure a few months earlier. The sad thing about all of this is when I tell people why I have no confidence in Hereford hospital, they too tell stories of bad treatment. Yes some of the nurses were kind, and the hospital was clean,but i have no trust or confidence in the hospital and warn people to stay away.