"Nothing, 3 members of my family ..."

What I liked

Nothing, 3 members of my family were admitted within days of each other all with pneumonia and pleurisy they were placed at different ends of the hospital so visiting was very difficult. That aside, the treatment of my younger sister who is only 30 years old was horrendous. When I visited her she was always in tears threatening to leave in a taxi because she was not recieving the pain relief (Morphine) that she should be getting with 12 hours regularly passing before she was given any relief. She was regularly sick and it would take 1 - 2 hours before they would clean it up and often bring her her meal with sick surrounding her, they would place her food where she couldn't reach it and there was never any water for her to drink and all she wanted when i visited her was to brush her teeth and feel comfortable but due to the pain she couldn't move. when I, as a visitor approached the nurses i was told they were busy at the moment. When finally a Nurse assistent came over she said " You should have told me that you needed pain relief to which my sister replied i did but people would come then say i will see what i can do and then never return, or they would never respond." My sister struggled to talk due to the pain and therefore i tried to get her some help it was only when i refused to leave until she received pain relief that they finally got it for her only after they found the controlled drug keys and a witness to over see the dispensing which took a further half hour. I am also a nurse but i found visiting my sister the most distressful thing i have ever experienced. Staff ignoring patients, It made me cry to see my sister suffer in such a way. One one occasion she was begging for pain relief and her antibiotics as it had been nearly 36 hour since she had received her treatments. the nurse said your coughing because you have seen the physio. she had not seen the physio, her response when told this was Oh so you are coughing for real. she was coughing up blood

What could be improved

everything i could go on....... There was nothing about my sisters care that was good they discovered her morphine should be adminstered orally every 2 hours when they had been giving it IV. they left gaps of up to 36 hours between giving anti biotics which should have been every 4 hours and the doctor was not aware that this was happening when i did manage to speak to them. when she was discharged she saw her GP who gave her stronger anti biotics which thankfully have started to work.

Anything else?

My sister is only 30 and was very ill along with my mother and my brother who were all admitted at the same time. I can only imagine how an elderly person would cope with that sort of treatment. The staff became rude regarding visiting times as it was difficult to get round to seeing them all. When i called on the phone i was told one time, then Told Off! when i arrived because i was 1/2 hour early, communication is very poor. It was a very distressing time having so many of my family poorly and reduced to tears most days by their treatment. I hope I never have to experience that again. I wasn't even a patient.

On a positive note and i do have one. As a nurse i work shifts that didn't always fit with visiting times. if this was the case if I called and explained I was often allowed to visit briefly outside of visisting times although it did involve calling three wards. My sister was on MAU and respiratory and Gastro. my brother was on children head and neck at 35 years old and my mum was on Head and Neck. My mums treatment on H & Neck was Ok and nowhere near as bad as my sisters experience so not all areas are bad. and some of the nurses are lovely but better communication would probably help. Also if people would follow through with what they say they will do, many people would be happier I am starting to wonder what happened to the role of a nurse and their duty of care. CARE being the word.