"Care of my mum at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital"

My mum was flown to the ITU in the QEUH in with meningitis as there were no beds in Aberdeen.

As a family we were very upset by the lack of care, communication and empathy in ITU and Ward 5C. There were too many examples to list them all unfortunately. Her meals were frequently left on the table beside her and she was given no assistance to sit and eat.

I had to help my mum sit up and eat, take her to the bathroom (which of course I didn’t mind doing). When we came into visit on several occasions the call bell was nowhere near her. This was particularly concerning on her first day out of the ITU when she was still confused.  

When we asked for help to take her toilet her first day in ward 5C we were told she had been independent all morning. The previous day in ITU she had only been able to sit up with assistance for a couple of minutes and she had ted stockings, a catheter and the bed rails were up.   Surely that made her too much of falls risk to be independent?  

I was particularly upset when her cannula came out and she waited over 20 for someone to come and try and insert another one. Surely in such a high tech hospital all the nurses are trained in cannulation? These are only a few examples of the lack of care my mum received.

As a family we were made to feel like we were a nuisance and ‘the difficult family’.  

I’m so disappointed by the care she received.