"You send patients home too soon"

One of my parents has been in and out of your hospital now over the past few months. The patient is clearly not well, yet the amount of messing about they have received is absolutely shocking. Sent home twice as the leg infection was supposedly getting better. This clearly wasn't the case.

The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. The amount of times that a blood sample has been requested and then requested again less than 24 hours later is disgusting. Especially as the veins in the patient keep collapsing and therefore taking bloods is extremely difficult, painful and takes a long time to do. Yet this repeat requests for blood samples still keeps happening. So there is clearly no evidence of forward planning nor indeed evidence of the gp/nurse looking through previous notes to assess what has happened previously and what has been successful.There are too many people working alone doing their own specific jobs without an all round focus on the needs of the patient and providing the best quality care.

Transport has been provided on occasions. The patient is not currently mobile yet one of your sisters on a ward had the audacity to suggest to my parents that they couldn't have transport for one particular test. On hearing this my parents endeavoured to transport themselves the hospital for their next two visits. This caused a huge amount of discomfort, anxiety and could have easily ended with a fall by the patient concerned. Careless words from a nurse that really ought to have known better. Coercing a vulnerable couple to make their own transport provision without considering the individual circumstances for that person.

On the latest admission the patient had to sit waiting for over 4 hours in a room for some further information. Having arrived at the hospital at 1130am for bloods, seen by the consultant at 2pm and then waited until 6.30pm until been taken to a ward.

All of the staff that had initially treated the patient left at 5pm and therefore my parents were waiting on their own with very few people around for a further 90 minutes. Occasionally a cleaner arrived and enquired whether they were ok Surely it is not the role of the cleaner to enquire about the welfare of vulnerable patients as everyone else has gone home.

Quite frankly the level of service and care provided has been disgusting. The information (or lack of it) shared has been appalling. The lack of joined up thinking and communication between different staff and or departments is a major cause for concern.

Social care get hammered for professionals not communicating to each other about vulnerable people.