"Unhappy with my mother's pneumonia care"

My Mum is stuck in Hastings hosptial and has been for 3 weeks now after being taken ill while on holiday. She lives in Dagenham so my Dad and sister have been travelling over 200 miles every day to see her.

She is currently waiting for a transfer to another hospital (originally Queens hospital in Romford but has now been changed to Guys hospital) which will be able to do the required operation. This transfer has been said to be "either tomorrow or the day after" ever since the first week she was admitted.

Her problems started a few months ago when she had chest pains and extreme coughing which both her doctor and her local hospital dismissed as a pulled muscle and sent her away with pain killers (no check on her lungs or breathing). The chest pains got increasingly worse and while on holiday she could no longer bare it and went to the local A&E.

They did a battery of tests and eventually diagnosed pneumonia, which has apparently been ongoing for a while which both her doctor and Queens hospital should have picked up on had they done the proper tests. Their tests were finished within 4 days and then they tried to drain the fluid on her lungs using a large needle but have not been able to reduce it enough so they said an operation would be required which they could not do so have put her on a transfer list to a nearer hospital who could do it.

During the second week of waiting they again tried to remove some fluid from her lung only to have stabbed her spleen in the process casuing yet another problem and hourly monitoring and tests to ensure it was still working correctly, thankfully that problem seems to be under control but that was over a week ago now and she is still awaiting transfer to Guys in London who say they have no space for her and my dad and sister have been continuing their very long journey every day since.