"Serious concerns about my mother's care"

My mother was recently admitted to Good Hope hosptal following a fracture to her arm.

Following her xray she was admitted to AMU ward for further assesment. We were told that she would be unable to have her arm put in plaster due to the location of the fracture and would need to stay in hoppital pending a visit from the orthopaedic doctor for further assessment, so she was admitted to hospital to stay.

The next day she was to be taken for an ultrasound scan, but as no one had been told she should be nil by mouth, she had eaten, and the scan couldn't be done. As a result she had to stay another night in hospital.

The following day she was sent for an ultrasound and by late evening we were still awaiting the results. Up to this point my mother had still not seen any form of doctor despite being told by the ward that she would.

The next day she was assessed again and was deemed not fit enough to go home and was moved to a geriatric ward to confirm her level of mobility and to be assesed by a physiotherapist.

The next day, after being in the ward for 24hrs, she still had not been visited by a doctor or a physiotherapist.

I need to make you aware at this point that since being first admitted into hospital my mother had been totally bed bound with no attempts to try to get her out of bed and moving, despite being told that they would not consider letting her home unless they could see her mobile.

The next day we visited again. Still no visit from any orthopaedic doctor or physiotherapist and still no attempts to try and get my mother up and out of bed. When asking the nurse why she hadn't got out of bed was told that they were unable to do this until she had been seen by a physiotherapist.

By this time my mother had now developed severe bed sores on her heels. She was also concerned that she had no underwear on, so a nurse was fetched and advised that my mother was incontinent so needed to wear an incontinence pad inside her pants - to which she just shrugged her shoulders as if to say 'how was I to know' and went and fetched help to change her.

Judging by the odour when we checked to confirm her underwear was missing I can confirm she had probably been sat in soiled sheets for some time.

The following day still no movement, no treatment for her bed sores and still no doctor. No ripple bed offered to improve the bed sores.

Today we were told that the physio had been to see mum and just got her out of bed and put her in a chair. No encouragement to try and get her walking, just sat her in a chair.

Both myself and my sister are no longer willing to sit and watch the horrendous neglect that my mother has endured in the last 7 days and this afternoon requested that she be moved. We asked what the procedure was to arrange for her to be moved to another hospital and have been told that this could be only be arranged through the physiotherapist. We asked for a number to do that, as nobody was able to help, and were told to ring the ward tomorrow between 9-4pm.

I have never witnessed such detachment to patients from staff whilst we have been visiting this week. We have witnessed no interaction, just a sense that patients are little more than an inconvenience to the daily duties. This just ridicules the profession that people have spent years studying and training to become.

My impression has been that there is no caring, staff just come and go and shifts are handed over from one to another with apparently little awareness of the condition of the patient that they are there to treat.

The nurses I spoke with couldn't even tell me what pills my mother is being administered, so we are also concerened that she is not keeping up with her regular daily medication that she needs.

No one it seems has any answers to any concerns we have raised. I would like someone to answer why at 82 years old my mother has had to endure this indignity along with the pain she is suffering.

We will be moving mum to another hospital and we will be making a formal complaint.