"Awful care for the terminally ill on ward 622"

My uncle was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham over 8 weeks ago and is currently an inpatient on ward 622. He is terminally ill with Cancer, The treatment he has received at this hospital I can only describe as horrendous. There are so many incidents of poor care that he has received, I don't think 3000 characters will cover it. My uncle currently has tumour at the base of his spine which has caused one of his vertebrae to crack. He was admitted 8 weeks ago due to the excruciating pain he was in (and continues to be in) . During his period of admission he has suffered with chronic diarrhoea. The staff have no idea what is causing it, he has been tested for c diff etc and no diagnosis has been made so he is still suffering from diarrhoea 8 weeks on! The nurses that are meant to 'care' for him (I say this loosely as my family and I haven't seen any really 'care' given by the nurses who are rude, unhelpful and to be quite frank seem to see him more as a pest rather than a patient) don't respond to his call for a bed pan for at least 15 minutes and by this time he done it as he cant walk to the toilet due to the crack in his vertebrae. My parents have been witness to this when they have been visiting and the nurses attitude was 'he can go out of bed' to which my father said 'do you read the notes, he has a crack in his spine' to which they responded 'oh we don't read the notes!' The nurses have repeatedly stated to my parents that my uncle can get out of bed and the physios have visited him every day and he refuses to get out of bed. My father asked for a meeting with a Doctor and the Doctor stated that the physios have only visited once in 5 days, to which my uncle broke down and sobbed as he was made to feel a liar - please bear in mind he is terminally ill. No update has been given to my uncle or to my family regarding his condition as when he was first diagnosed he was told he would have chemo therapy and this hasn't been given. The worst part is that my uncles long admission means that they now want the bed (even though he is worse now than when he went in!). They claim he is medically fit even though he is still suffering with the same problems that he went in with! The staff have bullied my uncle into trying to go into a nursing home which is miles away from his home and a lot harder for my family to get to. My father has asked social services not to cause my uncle distress by talking about moving him to a nursing home without one of the family present. This has been ignored and the social worker, the matron and the Consultant went to see him anyway. While admitted he has had two phones and his debit card stolen and money taken out of his account. The QE staff that we have encounter don't 'care' for their patients they just see them as a commodity to be gotten rid of as soon as possible.

My advice is to people is if their relatives are admitted to this hospital is to manage every second of their care as the staff wont.