"My grandfather is declining but it is preventable"

My grandfather is currently a patient in ward 20 which is an elderly medicine ward.

The atmosphere in this ward is incredibly upsetting. From the moment I walked in, I saw staff members providing personal care with doors wide open and talking to each other over the patients while providing them care. It seems to me that dignity appears not to be a priority.

My grandfather is a frail, elderly man who is deteriorating rapidly. He is lay in bed all day, every day other than to shower twice in over a week or go to the toilet. His mobility is declining rapidly and he is frightened that he is dying because he feels himself becoming weaker and less able. He says he wishes he could just get up and be helped to move around more. 

Currently he is nil by mouth whilst they explore if he is aspirating food and fluids. This has been for over two days. He is starving and thirsty. He is already weak and very underweight. He has not been assessed by speech and language therapists in this time and won't be for at least another day since they don't work weekends. He has an IV for fluids but this is not acceptable. It is in fact incredibly cruel, when the option to thicken food or employ an ng tube is an option. Perhaps not ideal bur far preferable to starving an already frail and underweight person for 48 hours. 

As you can imagine his mouth is very dry. He has been provided a pot of water and sponges to wet his mouth but it is always out of reach when we visit him. He is so incredibly grateful to be able to wet his lips but he is not wanting to bother staff. His mood is very very low and he cries frequently. He believes he is dying and he is weakening but staff are not reassuring, nor are they attempting to mobilise him to prevent "PJ Paralysis" and every day he loses mobility and independence. This is terrifying to him as it would be to anyone.

Often the phone on the ward is not answered or staff do not know the answer to questions when family phone. Communication is very poor and there is a strong sense that concerned family are a burden to deal with.

We are all frightened that he is declining, including him, but this is entirely preventable and nobody seems to see what is happening to him. It feels like a jumble of staff not connecting well and meanwhile he's just slipping away.