"My father died in Stepping Hill ..."

What I liked My father died in Stepping Hill in Feb 2010. An already upsetting experience was made worse by the hotchpotch care received at the hospital. A diagnosis was only made 2 days before his death. There was one staff nurse in the resus section of A&E that I felt went beyond her role as an emergency nurse. She treated my father with dignity, and performed good old fashioned nursing care such as pressure area relief and oral care. What could be improved? On a visit to A&E prior to my fathers admission he was sent home in extreme pain & told nothing further could be done for his pain. The A&E doctor flippantly told him "look mate, you`ve got a knackered back". Too true, turned out he had bone mets in his spine. A very unprofessional and insensitive comment to a very sick man and anxious relatives. I would suggest customer care training is required. Care was hotchpotch. The hospital only offer MRI scans from Mon-Fri. My father needed one urgently at a weekend but was too unstable to be transferred to another hospital which resulted in delayed diagnosis. One had to ask for everything one would expect for a seriously ill patient - mouthcare, position changes, analgesia etc etc. We were told there was no medical high dependency facility - something my father needed. Not very reassuring. The end of life pathway was not followed properly - again one had to ask for oral care, sedation when my father was agitated etc. A health care support worker still came to do blood pressure readings etc! On the ward my father passed away A15, there were posters everywhere about how clean the hospital was yet the ceilings and lights were full of cobwebs and the bedside locker was crawling with ants. Anything else? Happy to discuss further with the appropriate staff, a letter of complaint is pending.