"Understaffed, poorly managed, no leadership"

Deeply concerned about the quality of care our father received and the lack of clinical leadership and management of Ward B12. The emergency side of things when he was first admitted was great in the first 36 hours. It went severely downhill after that. The different specialities don't speak to one another,everything seemed very adhoc, haphazard and not joined up. I was shocked by the level of ownership and accountability. There are some great individuals, but it feels like no one is accountable (or trying) to create an environment in which they can do their best work. We were deeply concerned that no one took overall responsibility for our Father's care and the lack of engagement of the family by senior staff, who preferred to send junior staff in to give bad news.

The ward is so understaffed, even with a high ratio of agency nurses, that even the basics don't get done - our dad was left in bed or his chair for long periods of time, not even being got up to go to the toilet. Our experience was one of having to chase down each and every decision and treatment and the staff were defensive when challenged. At times we lost so much confidence in the care , especially at night, that we spent hours and nights by our father's side, sleeping in chairs. Overall it was a shocking experience and brings into serious question the competency and capability of the hospital's management team but more importantly the senior medical staff on the respiratory ward. It makes me think that although the NHS is good for emergency care, I should probably look at a private health care plan for everything else. The Board of Peterborough Hospital, the Managers and Consultants have some serious questions to answer and I would like the opportunity to explain what care is being provided on the ground as I'm not sure that they know how poor a system of care they are operating.

ps during the course of this review, a serious issue around the accuracy of record keeping around prescribing has been raised and another about his diagnosis. It is proving difficult to get clear and accurate information about his care.