"Poor coordination and team working."

My elderly father aged 85 waited 7.5 hours in AMU before being admitted. His problem was evident on arrival but treatment was delayed because the system in operation meant nobody who could make a decision saw him until 7 hours in. Blood tests took 3 hours to return and staff were unconcerned and simply said it was par for the course. When we asked if that was an acceptable level of service they were unable to say anything other than to recommend that we should complain to the lab. During the long wait we were very struck by the lack of service ethos and also apparent lack of professionalism of staff who joked between themselves, talked about their own business in front of patients and avoided speaking to patients, some of whom were waiting very long periods. There were admittedly exceptions- a friendly but seemingly powerless nurse and a caring doctor in training, but some staff seemed to accept a standard of care and good manners I think they would find unacceptable for their own relatives. There was no sense of urgency and a lack of coordination so that bloods X-rays and ECGs were not planned and staff arrived to do them all at the same time. Had the expert opinion been at the start of the process as opposed to the end, time and resource could have been used more effectively.