"Impossible to get through on phone"

It is impossible to get through on the phone to this ward, either on their direct line or through the switchboard. My 79 year old mother was admitted last week after a bad fall at home, and has a head injury. I try to visit most days, but I work full time and it is a three hour round trip from home. I am my mum’s only family, and responsible for her care. I cannot obtain any information about her progress and wellbeing without going in in person, and then staff are evasive and reluctant to look at patient notes when asked for information. The ward seems understaffed and poorly managed. A doctor fobbed me off yesterday with the claim that she had ‘sick patients to attend to’ and couldn’t update me about the effects of my mum’s bleed on the brain. My mum is declining daily and I have no way of finding out how she is from doctors or nurses.

I have rung over twenty times today between the hours of 8am and 5pm and each time the phone has simply rung out. This is an appalling way to treat patients and their anxious, distressed family members.