"great stroke unit but lack of communication key"

My father was brought to pilgrim as an emergency to A and E .

He had suffered a stroke and fortunately was able to have the clot busting drug given in time by the staff in A and E. He lives on his own and is 81.

My sister and I live over 2 and 1/2 hours away and did not discover what had happened until 6 pm - when the collapse had happened in the early morning.

On initial visit to stroke unit spoke to excellent Sister who explained what had happened.

Main nursing staff and other staff seemed very caring and friendly and ward was small and tidy.

Our main problem as a family however was then the lack of information given to you as a relative as the days went by.

Only by doing our own detective work did we find out anything. Then we were not involved in discharge discussions or had even had any kind of prognosis until we complained?!!

The system cannot be right to trust a stroke victim of 81 to refuse any aftercare initially because we weren't there at the time and for health professionals to then discharge a patient without telling immediate family - as obviously my father could not drive home or had any means of getting home .

Lots of assumptions were made without our knowledge.

Communication is key and it appears the system at Pilgrim is not working correctly I'm afraid.