"My uncle was transferred to LRI ..."

What I liked

My uncle was transferred to LRI from Westmorland General Hospital (WGH) to under go further tests. These were carried out very speedily. The nursing staff on the ward that he was initially admitted to were very helpful and allowed me to speak to him on the ward phone as he had not set up patientline as he was expecting to be transferred back to WGH any day. However, it was a different story when m uncle was transferred to another ward at LRI. When I called that ward and asked to speak to him I was told 'not on this phone'. I appreciate that maybe he should have patientline set up, but I understand his reasons for not doing so. Even if he did have it set up how was I to know?? I found the member of staff rude and unhelpful...how was I to know what phone I could call on? When I asked if there was another phone to call on I was told there wasn't. As a fellow NHS professional I find it unreasonable that relatives are spoken to in this manner and that a ward only has one phone line. All the wards that I work on have 2 or 3 phones and patients are allowed to speak to concerned relatives although the amount of time may need to be restricted if the ward is busy e.g. office hours.

What could be improved

For the first week following his admission and diagnosis he received very little rehab during this time despite it being of the most paramount importance in terms of recovering his functional ability.

My uncle is a solitary person, my parents were abroad and I just wanted to check he was ok. I think that nurse who took my call could have handled the situation much better by just saying 'I'll just check to see if he has patientline set up' or 'Yes that's fine but it will need to be brief as we only have one phone on the ward. If the ward only has one phone then this needs to be improved as in my experience, despite having computers, phones are still widely used and are effective ways of communicating within the hospital.