"Disgraceful"

Sadly I can not rate this hospital at all. My husband became very ill just before Easter with a concerning neck swelling. He was admitted to the Clinical decision unit’,awaiting immediate test results. During this time two Doctors had a stand up row at the foot of his bed - arguing if his case was ENT or Orthopaedic! Meanwhile my husband was in pain and distressed.

In the end the ENT department took over his care but with no clear guidance or communication about what they thought was the cause of the illness. My husband had two distressing procedures with a tube down the nose- two Drs again disagreed about the findings!

During my husbands stay on the CDU - the patients didn’t receive an evening meal!!, I had to seek food and the only sustainance was vending machines with chocolate and crisps. Disgraceful! Worse than a third world experience.

On hospital discharge, no information was given about possible diagnosis. My husband was given an URGENT MR scan appointment. As it was Easter everything closed down and everything was delayed. He eventually had his scan AND guess what- they lost the report.

The result was sent to ‘ Lower Limb Services’ (unbelievable). To add insult to this inefficiency, that service didn’t send it back- they just shelved it! What absolute morons.

We had to chase the result round the hospital, with no one taking responsibility. We were then told that an appointment had been sent out to him, and again - this hasn’t arrived.

My husband is still in pain, still has a neck swelling and is anxious but no one seems to give two hoots!

Our own GP doesn’t feel able to get involved as he is under the hospitals care.

So what do we do now and to whom do we complain. There is a total lack of accountability in Stepping Hill. How can the hospital improve, when there is no communications and a complete lack of care and understanding of how distressing it is to be a patient. Our whole experience has been shambolic. We don’t expect preferential treatment, we just want some level of professionalism. My only advice is to use another hospital as Stepping Hill seems to have lost the plot completely.