"Comments on father's stay in Medway Hospital"

Our 98 year old father was recently admitted to Medway Maritime Hospital with a broken femur. After passing through A & E where he was looked after promptly in a caring and diligent manner by all staff involved, the only delay being his transfer to the Arethusa ward, he was operated on the next day. From then on he was in his bed by the window or in a chair beside the bed. The ward was cold and draughty due to a number of window catches being broken and the windows not closing properly and the radiators beneath the windows either turned off or not operating properly. The elderly patients were cold and visitors kept their outdoor clothes on. The comment of one nurse was "thats why they have blankets, its cheaper than mending the windows because there is no money availlable" Can you please explain how a thin blanket tucked up under a patients arms keeps head, shoulders, neck and chest warm? There were other elderly and obviously very sick men in the ward dressed only in hospital gowns and covered with a sheet, one of them like our father, just a couple of feet from the windows. We observe from the press and television that big moves and a lot of money will be spent improving the A & E Department. While this is good news, and we observed that initial improvements have been made with the addition of a temporary reception ward, what is the point when patients are sent off to wards which do not provide the environment essential for recovery? We note that the high rate of mortality in this hospital is being addressed and that some improvement has been made. This problem needs sorting out now not "sometime in the future". Fortunately our father was only in the ward for 2 weeks and is now recovering elsewhere unlike the poor souls who are in for a longer stay, some of whom no doubt wll not have family to provide warm clothing. We trust our comments will be taken seriously so that future patients will benefit during their stay in hospital.