"My father's poor experience at North Tyneside"

My father is in ward 18 and the care he has received seems at times to be downright dangerous.

They changed his oxygen mask and 1 hour later my dad asked my to ask them if they would change the oxygen mask back to the old one as he didn't feel like he was getting enough oxygen only for me to discover that there was nothing wrong with the mask, the nurse had forgot to turn the oxygen on!

For some reason someone had stopped giving my father fluids by drip. As my father was unable to swallow even water i couldn't understand this and was worried about dehydration. When i tackled them about this after 2 days they said they thought my father was eating and drinking normally even though he has stomach cancer and had been on a drip for 5 days before someone stopped it.

They didn't know why it had been stopped and had been leaving pills for my father to take, they were stock piling on the table and even though we had mentioned this several times no one did anything. Some nurses seemed to be totally unaware of my father's condition until i spoke to them. My father has also been left in pain for hours on numerous occasions, it appears because they go away and forget to bring him pain relief.

They are so short of equipment that on one occasion they even borrowed my fathers oxygen mask for another patient, talk about hygiene! They had to go looking for drip stands, they had two observation machines which did not work and they seemed to take for ever to get something when you ask for it.

My father waited 30 minutes for help in going to the toilet and when he didn't make it they stuck a nappy on him. This is so undignified for someone who has always been independent. Every time my father has gone into this hospital he has caught a bug. If my father gets out of this place we will make sure that he never goes there again.