"Appauling!"

What I liked

On the 2 occasions that I sadly had relatives admitted via Accident and Emergency and then on to wards, it has to be said there is nothing positive I can say.

What could be improved

1) Communication-my father was admitted via a and e with a suspected TIA. He was sent for a CT scan and then told to return to the waiting room after this. After waiting over an hour, he approached reception, shortly after which as nurse announced they had been looking for him, stated they were taking him back to his cubicle, but then took him somewhere he had never been. Delay in treatment here, had there been a significant on his scan, then life saving thrombolytic treatment which has a strict time frame to be administered in would have been missed. Very poor considering this is a NICE recognised timeframe and treatment!!!

2) My father was admitted to the stroke unit having been advised he had a TIA. He was then told by one Dr he hadn't, by another that he had. Advised at clinic he hadn't, but then advised by the stroke specialist nurses he had infact had 2TIAs. This was then reduced back to just 1 by the GP. He is now very anxious as his father died from a massive CVA and feels poorly informed.

3) My father was transferred to EAU into a mixed bay. No apolgies given to him for this. He was the only male in a femal bay. A sister of this unit entered the room several times, she never made eye contact, nor apologised for this and came across as very rude and unnapproachable. Also there was an awful lot of very loud innappropriate conversations occuring at the nursing station between this sister and a nurse who didnt move from a chair the entire time I was there and appeared to complain about how tired she was.

Anything else?

Perhaps staff need to be aware of communicating effectively with patients.

Nursing is a profession and has standards, these were not met.

Adherence to national life saving policies should be maintained in order to reduce serious incidents.

Single sex policy is a place for a reason, the maintaining of dignity and respect for each patient. Was this breech of single sex declared?