"Terminally-ill patients and family need support..."

What could be improved

As the next of kin of a terminally-ill cancer patient at the Waslgrave I have been unforgivably patronised by a Macmillan nurse. It was the equivalent of being spoken to by Michael Winner in the car insurance advertisements. If this is the level of specialist understanding then I fear for the next few months. I thought we were asking perfectly natural questions, which we did not have answers for. I was told my relative was not deteriorating, despite not having started his treatment, although he was diagnosed around 6 weeks ago. The reason the nurse knew this, categorically, was that they had spoken to my relative's GP! Since when has a GP lived in a family except their own? We can assure the medical profession he has deteriorated dramatically over the past six weeks to the point that he now has trouble manipulating cutlery and cannot carry cups of hot drinks anymore. Please do not tell relatives something contrary to what they see. It is offensive.