"No wheelchairs and No water at CFH"

No wheelchairs

I accompanied my frail 86 year old mother for an endoscopy at CFH. We arrived 45 minutes early for appointment and parked in a disabled bay near the Main reception. I left my Mum in the car while I went in to find a wheelchair . There appeared to be no wheelchair in the hospital! No wheelchair in sight and so I scoured the hospital looking in the transport lounge as well as corridors – No wheelchair in sight! The receptionist called a porter. I had to get my mum from the car to entrance first though.

Porter who eventually arrived. The journey to endoscopy was a joke in lifts and going outside in the rain! When we eventually arrived there disabled parking available outside. WHY did not the receptionist at main reception tell me this?!

From the time we arrived at main reception, to the time we arrived in endoscopy was well over one hour and we were late for the apointment.

A long isolating wait in a pod

We waited almost 2 hours to go into endoscopy, they insisted I could not go in with my frail elderly mum; procedure was for her stay in a "pod"until the endoscopy. She remained there for a further 2 hours. I could have kept her company but it was not allowed.

No water

I became very thirsty and there were no water dispensers or water jugs anywhere to be seen. I asked the endoscopy receptionist where I could get water from and was directed to the cafe which was outside in a different building. There was a whole shelf devoted to small bottles of water from £1.20 upwards. I had no choice but to pay £1.20 for a small bottle of water. What a disgrace and shame on you CFH for allowing this!

Water is a basic requirement.

I saw the small pieces of paper for feedback and it wasnt ig enough for what i had to say. Didn't realise there were still hospitals like CFH in existence in the 21st century.