I'm disgusted at the treatment he received in hospital, he had a recently dicovered shadow on his lung which proved to be cancer.
After a fall at home and suffering a nasty head gash he had to go to hospital.

They kept him in, he got weaker because of poor food and lack of attention at meal times, he fell out of bed several times, he became dehydrated. He developed horrendous bed sores due to poor nursing, i.e. not washing the area after wetting, just slapping more barrier creams on top of urine soaked skin.

After a month of this they discharged him.
He came home with black eyes, bruised knees and scraped toes all from falling out of bed and crawling aroung the ward floors. His arms were a mess of scabs were he had been roughly handled and his weak skin had broken and torn.

He died 4 days after coming out of hospital, although I know his cancer was bad I do believe that the treatment he received in hospital shortened what time he had left and also made it very distressing for him.

The Marie Curie Nurses that visited home said they had never seen such a bad case of bed sores and it was due to neglect, the family GP also said he had been the victim of poor treatment and neglect and he suggested that we right a letter of complaint with regards to the poor care and treatment that he had received whilst in hospital. He even said if we don't complain 'things will never change'

What has happened to nursing?  Where are the S.E.N's, the S.R.N's, the Sisters and the Matron's? It's all 'Care Workers' now and half of them can't even speak English.

Whilst visiting my dad in hospital one day he wanted to spend a penny, my sister asked a passing person in non descript white uniform for a commode or wheel chair, she said 'he's not my patient', subsequently nothing happen and dad pee'd the bed.

That just about sums up the general treatment in the NHS

I don't think it actually sums up the treatment in the NHS but sadly it does happen.

so sorry to hear your terrible news, i really think you should take this matter further and make a formal complaint, and have your gp and the visiting nurses also write a complaint as they had witnessed the condition of your dad x x

sadly my father suffered similar treatment  , overall i think the nhs does a good job but quite a few slip through the net, maybe nore than we care to admit . after being told he had a bad back due to muscle spasams  it turned out to be cancer of the kidney that had spread to the liver and spine, a house doctor told us it was operable then 2 hours later a consultant came and told us there was nothing they could do , he had radio therapy but 3 weeks later he died in a hospice ,.my mother was a srn then a matron  (she died before him) she would  have been appalled at todays treatment of older patients (dad was only 68) bring back the old days of nursing that is what she would have said.
i sympathise with you and your family its no way to have a loved one taken from you , when the care could have been so much better.

> bring back the old days of nursing

Thar's what pisses me off the most

Both my parents were in the NHS. Prior to that they were ex RAF in the medical sector.

The hospital that my dad received such crap treatment from was the very one that when it opened, he opened and then went on to run the Path Lab, my mother was an SRN in Opthalmics and worked in the same hospital, so I know what good nursing is all about and what we get in our hospitls today is crap.

Yes i agree, I could tell you a very similar story which has led us to losing our Dad  mainly due to the lack of care and communication in an NHS hospital. We had a lot of experience with private hospitals one in particular and also a fantastic hospice could not fault the care in either. This one time he had to go through the NHS first whatever the reason, the outcome was unforgivable.  

I know I'm raw from losing my dad only a week or so ago, so my opinions may sound biased, but having seen the way nursing is done these days in NHS hospitals I don't think it can actually be called nursing, and I for one would rather go private if only I had the money.

God forbid I'm ever i'll, please don't send me to an NHS hospital, especially if I'm old.

I am so sorry for the loss of your Dad. I lost my Mum from cancer nearly 4 years ago and it still hurts like hell now. I completely agree about the disgusting treatment he received on the NHS. Ours was nothing to do with cutbacks either, it was the uncaring manner in which she was treated by the Nurses (British Nurses), they showed no compassion for a dying woman.  She was less than 4 hours from dying (she was already vomitting)  and they moved her out of a side ward to the main ward where she was when we arrived. I had to beg the nurse (as she hung around and chatted at the Nurse Station) to move her (we were given a pathetic excuse as to why she had been moved onto the main ward and why she couldn't go back onto the side ward) and eventually they did move her back (where she died about 1½ hrs later).
You must report them, I only wish we had.
Peregrine1

Firstly I am so sorry for your loss, please accept my condolances.

My Nan (in her 90s) had a two stays in our local NHS hospital.

The first was pretty awful on the ward and when she was discharged 2 weeks later they hadn't even helped her get dressed!
As I was stuck in the multi storey car park with no spaces to park (grrr) I think they were so worried as her bed had already been given
to someone else.
They wheeled her to the level of the car park which connects
to the hospital. I was grateful for this but stunned when I saw she wasn't dressed - still in nightie and night gown!
The nurse telling her to hurry up - erm after a two week stay in a hospital bed she was still pretty weak and couldn't jump up
and move like a spring chicken!!
We should really have complained to the Patients thingy (is it PALS?) as it wasn't very good level of care.
We didn't as Nan didn't want any fuss.

Her second stay a few years later at the same hospital was much better.
Althou this time we did opt for her to be delivered home by the hospital bus (I couldn't get the time off to collect her and nor could other
driving members of the extended family)  and she had been helped to get dressed.
The wards she had been on were also much better in care - althou another patient in the same ward as my Nan had had a fall - no one with her
so perhaps not completly perfect :( The nurses did seem to be more caring on my own observations when I was visiting.

I guess it all depends on how good the staff at the hospitals are and how good the upper management are too.
Sadly I still remember that TV programme where the nurse did the undercover work and filmed this was it a panorama programme?
I was shocked and saddened then and perhaps it might be worth a phone call to the TV station that filmed this?
If this nurse had not made a stand then we would not be aware that it is happening in many hospitals and we should I guess all be
whistle blowers when we see a problem. That we hopefully we can prevent another patient and their family having to go through this.

So sorry to hear the sad stories here.
My dad thankfully died at home in his armchair; my mother was in hospital where the care seemed OK really - the nurses appeared generally kind or at least tolerant.
She was taken to a hospice a few weeks before her death and I have to say the care there was second to none; the nurses were amazing.

I have a real worry of ending up my last days in a hospital with uncaring nurses - read too many stories sadly.

Lindsay
x

I'm so sorry for your loss. It's so sad that people are treated this way. Your story was almost identical to that of my nan - she was in hospital for 6 months before she died. It was an absolute nightmare to watch. We complained until we were blue in the face and in the end all we could do was ensure that one of the family was at the hospital every day to ensure she ate and drank. She was not able to take care of this herself and no-one would help her. She got so dehydrated she was almost unconcious. Her bed sores were so bad they went gangrenous and she had to have them operated on, had she recovered she would never have walked again due to the mess they'd made of her heels because of these bedsores.  She shouldn't have died, she got MRSA and so the wound from her initial operation wouldn't heal because of it. There was much more, but this was now 5 years ago and I mostly block it out now.

It was so horrific that my mum, who needed a routine op a year or so after this all happened, got a bank loan and went private. She's still paying for it,  but there's no way she'll set foot in an NHS hospital. Me and my family took out BUPA insurance.

I'm very sorry you've lost your dad. Take care.

I am so sorry for your loss :-(

Whilst some patients care seems to be far less than it should be not all patients receive bad care. I lost my husband last year to cancer and the care he received was first rate. There was not a single area of his involvement with the NHS that I could criticise and the professionals involved in his treatment and care could not be faulted. It was his wish to remain at home with his family and the support we were given to enable this to happen was excellent.

Losing a loved one is devastating but the help, care and support we were given enabled him to remain at home with his loved ones as was his wish and this was only made possible by the NHS and our local hospice. I hope you are able to get some answers to your questions for that particular hospital but there are good hospitals and NHS professionals out there that do deserve to be praised for the care they give and I am saddened that your dad's care was not as it should have been.

Pinky, I'm sorry for your sadness at losing your dad, it is so hard without the fact he got such poor care.
I have just been in hospital and because I work in hospitals I am aware that unless you are in a hospice type environment then sadly you are at the mercy of varied staff.
A hospice is probably the only place people care in the way we feel we should be 'cared' for.
If any body has the misfortune to have to go to hospital it is an unpleasant experience, and we can not rely on others to give the loving care we would hope to have.
When my first child was an in patient I was horrified that I found him in a wet bed... AS the time has gone on I have come to realise that as nice as it would be hospital is a harsh place and there is no loving 'one to one' care and attention. The type we all would love to have.l

Karen :(

Pinky, I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your Dad. I lost my Dad last October, I understand completely the upset you feel at your Dad's treatment - I'm still angry and upset about how my Dad was treated. We weren't able to get my Dad home in time and he died in a bed, in a room with three other very elderly men, but ones suffering from mental health problems. The distress they caused Dad in his final days was disgusting. The nursing staff spoke very little English and we heard one of them shouting at one of these men as she couldn't make him understand. I worry so much at how they treated Dad when we weren't there. Dad spent much of his time with the call button in his hand as two of the men would often get out of bed and stand over Dad, probably no intention of harming him but he was very ill and it upset him.
I also had to ask for water for him as the jug would often be empty and we know he ate very little, he was in too much discomfort to sit up and eat so his tray would just be taken away from him.
To think this all started with a fall in April which hurt his back. His GP insisted it was muscle pain. Two months later, lots of tears and upset in between a locum GP sent him for a scan.....he had 3 broken vertebrae. By then his body was weak, his legs in a state due to the immobility and the weight gain around his tummy(which his GP told him was due to him not getting up and exercising to help his 'muscle pain') turned out to be advanced liver and abdominal cancer. Three weeks later he was gone.
Our wish was to have him home but the care package we were told he had to have had a waiting list of 12 weeks........what a joke. They and we knew he had little time left. Their excuse at one stage was that he couldn't go home until he could walk unaided..................something I told them he had been unable to do since his idiot of a GP told him he had simply pulled the muscles in his back.
The day before he died one wonderful 'old fashioned' nurse told Mum and I that if Dad was still with us the following morning we were to put him in a wheelchair and take him home, she too was upset at his lack of care. Sadly, during our car journey the following morning he went.
I've promised my Mum and my husband and I have promised eachother that we won't allow the same to happen to us.

Pinky, try to remember the good times. My thought are with you and your family.

Pinky and arched just to say I am sorry you have had to witness this.

May your hearts heal and your Fathers rest in peace x

in my view the SEN's and SRN's that were are no longer. I trained as a RGN (SRN) and we did everything for the patients that were allocated under our care for that shift - washed them, fed them, helped to the toilet, made their bed etc etc. Now a days its all changed as they have different grades of staff to do different things and people just dont seem to have continuity of real care. The RGN's now are so over worked because they have been replaced with care assistants and meal staff so only have time for the drug therapy of patients, sorting out doctors and being in charge of the ward they are on.

This is my view only and gained from recent hospital visiting of family. There is just not enough staff on the wards, they are grateful to those relatives that come in and help at meal times or bath times. I left general nursing many years ago and have thought about returning but as a care assistant so that i can give proper nursing care - guess then i might be told i'm too slow and there isn't time to talk to the patients!

I trained as an RGN too and have to say I agree with everything that Lorripop has said. My dad, mum, husband and daughter have all been in hospital for spells over the last few years and it is very different from when I did my training. Maybe it's the way that nurses are trained these days as well as the nursing staff shortages.

I am also an RGN and a trained Midwife .
I left Midwifery as i was not prepared to treat women like they were on a conveyor belt , i wanted them and their families to have a good experience and to spend time helping breast-feeding and showing women how to bath their babies and sterilise/make bottles .
I am still an RGN and am occasionally disappointed in the care i see and am told/read about .I remember a degree student nurse telling me that she did not want to be a nurse , she wanted to be a manager !  I also remember a degree student midwife not knowing a simple fact about high blood pressure , but that was because she hadn't trained as a nurse first .
There are many changes that need to happen , but there are some good people still around .

I came out of a well known London hospital yesterday after an operation. I have to say I was very disappointed with the care I received.  The consultant I had my original appointment with didn't do the operation, I met the new one just before going to theatre.  I never saw a consultant afterwards, the excuse was they were tied up with an emergency. I eventually saw (after waiting 6 hours) a HSO I think he said he was, who couldn't understand what the consultant had written up on his post op. notes.

I woke up on a ENT ward but should have been on an orthopaedic, they had run out of beds.  The nursing staff just were not around, they took my stats post operative, but considering I wasn't allowed out of bed for 24 hours any other needs were not attended to usless I used my buzzer, which wasn't met with a smile.

I was saddened by what I experienced.  I had always praised the NHS on previous experiences.

It makes me really sad to read these posts. We were taught to think of a close relative/good friend around the same age as the patient, and to treat the patients how we would like our relatives/friends treated at all times. We used to be rushed off our feet most days but if a patient needed to talk we found the time. I don't think basic nursing care is taught or comes naturally to some care workers these days.

When I did my training many moons ago they had started a new course for graduates, they only did 18mnths training compared to our 3 years. I couldn't get my head around this at the time as their degree could have been in anything, not necessarily a medical science. A lot of these students that I worked with wanted to get up through the ranks, go abroad to work or get sales rep jobs with drug companys. Not many of them wanted to work at ward level caring for patients. We could also pick out the trainee nurses who were in it for a job rather than because it was a vocation in life!

Having read through all of the posts it just confirms my belief, the standard of care in NHS hospitals is sadly lacking and by no means up to the standard of years gone by.

My parents are in their low 70's, dad was only 74yrs, mum had been in nursing all of her working life, doing general nursing and specializing in eyes and dad started as a junior lab tech going on to Senior Chief MLSO.

I can remember years ago my dad saying that things in the NHS were changing for the worse and that they only wanted managers and mum saying that nurses these days don't nurse and they don't monitor the care assistants enough to see that they're doing things as they should.

Many many years ago I would have felt safe and confident to go into hospital, now I would be cr***ing myself, for fear of catching some ghastly illness due to poor cleanliness or suffering bad treatment at the hands of people that don't seem to give a damn.

My dad had a gem of a saying towards the end of his working career.

PATIENT SURVIVED IN SPITE OF TREATMENT.

I've asked my mum to write a letter of complaint as suggested by her GP and the Marie Curie ladies but she won't, she says, 'I'd better not I might have to go into that hospital one day and I don't want to mark my card'.

Pinky, your story really made me sad and I am so sorry for your loss

My father visited an nhs hospital 10 years ago to this day for an eye complaint. The doctor he saw failed to complete basic tests and missed a tumour sat under his brain. The tumour was on his petuitary gland (gland that controls all hormones for the body) which the optic nerves go through. If the man had scanned my Dad he would have been able to spot the tumour easily. However, he didnt. The tumour continued to grow, crushing & severing his optic nerves. He is now 100% blind. At the age of 35, my father lost his sight and his access to the world. He is still the same man, luckily the tumour was discovered when he was taken in for appendix issues. If it was left any longer he would have suffered severe brain damage. This was only discovered when he went private due to a work promotion. He now has to take a cocktail of hormone replacement and more each day to keep him alive.

I feel my father has lost our most valued sense due to carelesness of one individual. I do not tar the whole nhs with the same brush but it does make you wonder.

xxx

Pink, I just wanted to say how sorry I am for the loss of your dad. I hope you get these issues resolved with your local Hospital. xx

So so Sorry... such sad reading this is...sending you & yours lots of hugs x

Pinky, sorry to hear of your experiences.  We went through something similar earlier this year with my step father.  He evenentually died in hospital 8 weeks after being admitted.  He was moved a couple of times between wards and the care he received varied depending on the ward.  The first two he was on (ITU and then the heart ward) his care was excellent, he was then moved to a high dependancy ward where they had a lot of agency nurses and his care was less than adequate, he had trouble eating and on a number of occaisions my mum ended up feeding him cold food a couple of hours after dinner because he could not do it himself and nobody had helped him.  His catheter got blocked a couple of times and we had to tell the nurses after we realised that the bed was wet.  There were a number of other problems as well. 

Eventually I got really annoyed after he had been left in a wet bed and went to PALS (Patient Advice and Liason Service) and made an official complaint, I also wrote to the chief executive of the local trust.  There was a noticeable improvement in his care after I had complained to PALS.  I should also point out here that while he was on the high dependancy ward there were a couple of nurses who were really good with him, and at least you knew when they were on you didn't have to worry about his care.

Firstly sorry for your loss.
Completely agree with comments here. I lost my dad in January. Thankfully he was in a home for the last two weeks of his life and they were fantastic with him and gave him some dignity back. The hospital (IMO) pretty much finished him off. He had had quite a few strokes over the last 8 months of his life and the last visit in hospital really robbed him of any hope or dignity. He complained of his bottom being sore. When we had a chance we rubbed cream into it we found dried *** stuck to him that they obviously hadn't cleaned him when he had been on the bedpan. Can you imagine how that must have burned him. He became horrendously thin and I now realise that they were obviously putting his food down and then taking it away uneaten. If we had known my Mum could have arranged her daily visit for mealtimes and fed him.
When my Mum was in there a few years ago with cellulitis, she was supposed to have 4 intraveous antibiotic drips. I would go in at evening visit to see that she was still being given the second one and still had a further two to be administered by bedtime. Cannot believe the lack of care that is now the NHS.

Im afraid I had the same type of treatment with Mum I went on the radio and was interviewed on tv re her treatment, they do not deal with all patients as human beings where they are so rushed and so tied to preformance tables. Yes its not everyone but for some of us it leaves a really bad taste to see love ones die so badly. In our case with no pallative care when dying of bone cancer. And I do mean no pallative care at all, in fact alone with me, my brother and Dad, no nursing, no doctor nothing and believe me I begged for help! didnt get any.

The common factor here seems to be how our elderly people are treated  and its disgusting. It may be know better with children i have little personal experieince but somehow when its kids we get more motivated to change things
Unfortantely there seems to be little appeal to marketing improvements for the elderly and we are all going to get there.
Todays news item was regarding removing live in wardens for sheltered accomodation (money again). The people interviewed say they need to have someone there who they know and feel secure with a phone line to an emergency number is not satisfactory.I would feel like if it were any of my relatives a phone line is not the same as caring real person
Guess they will get ignored again because pretty causes are more important.
Sorry if sound too grumpy old women and i have a way togo before I personally would need this type of care (hopefully) but after seeing my dads treatment  or lack of it and reading all this I feel so upset and angry.
Good for you Whistler getting the radio to listen but it shouldn't be needed.
And your story was similar to ours. They even got the reason wrong just made an assumption because he had postrate/bone cancer. He had a crumbled vertebra caused by bone cancer and was in for treatment with know expectation that he was terminal at that point. Even his consultant at the Royal marsden (he was in a general hspital awaiting transfer) where he was usually treated was shocked when he found out. The real cause of death because we insisited in a post mortem was a sudden heart attack that the hospital didn't recognise, they told me he was dehydrated and had urinary retention and was being treated for that !!
Sorry folks the whole thing even now 10months on is so raw I get very ang
ry

I must say my experience was just the opposite with the NHS & my mother after she had her massive stroke. Her care was first class & had it not been for the NHS staff, Social Services would have happily returned her home where she could not have been cared for properly 24/7 with the 2 hours care a day that the SS would have provided.

Removing wardens from sheltered accommodation has nothing to do with the NHS, it is a Local Authority decision & after the Lib Dems"swept to power"in Kingston upon Hull a year or so back, the care provided is being privatized & reduced at an alarming rate ! This is typical across the country.

Yes Im 4 years on they told mum it was in her head, she had polymiositis and bone cancer, she was taken finally ill on Thursday promised help but Saturday she was so bad I called a dr about 12 hours later one arrived with a diazapan, which she coud not take. Monday we did get a nurse call, she called a doctor and he fitted morphine and 5 hours later she was dead. But all in all from illness to death 2 and a half years!! basically all they said was "we have learnt lessons from Mrs Blunts care" oh Hurrah. looking at your posts, they havent learnt enough. I pleaded with them to review her care, I told them she was ill not in her head but not a thing happened, it was horrific with her screaming ect... so no Im not a great advocate at NHS. Now my son' I could not fault his care from a baby with asthma.

It does hurt but the good thing is they are past their pain and when my time comes Im off to Dignitas!

I know it has nothing to do with the nhs I was just pointing out that care for our elderly seems to come rather far down on the priority lists either directly or indirectly as in the examples of klack of care in nhs hospitals

Yes, from what I've seen, elderly care, especially end of life care, is way down the list. My Dad, 83 - a rear gunner in the RAF during WW2, worked all his life, never claimed a penny, very patriotic, loved his Country......in the end was treated with no respect or dignity at all.
Maybe things will change, my Dad's generation aren't the sort to speak out, it wasn't the way they were bought up. Mum didn't want me to complain at the time about what had happened, she didn't want to 'make a fuss'. Typical of a lovely, polite, hardworking and kind lady.

Arched all I can say is Yes and your parents sound very much like mine and the same age group.

Sadly for my dad all of this has taken place since last week of June this year, his first trip to hospital was for a swollen and painful arm, from this, after X-Ray the lung shadow was found and described as too advanced and large to treat..

There then followed several weeks of waiting for an Oncologist appt, before that happened he had a fall, gashed his head and needed stitches, he actually walked into hospital albeit with sticks and said 'come on Mrs lets get this over with'.

They kept him in, he got thinner, less active, bruised, and horrendous bed sores, he kept begging to go home, they kept him for a month and discharged a shell of a man that could only be syringed with a few mil of water and eat a spoon of ice cream, as I said he died 4 days later.

Ironically, 3 years earlier when he complained of breathing difficulties he was treated for Asthma and Hay Fever, I'd never know my dad suffer with either and I believe if they had X-Ray'd his chest then they would have discovered the beginnings of the lung shadow.

I'd just like to say thank-you for the kind words and the understanding from a lot of posters, however I think it is sad that a lot of the understanding has come from people that have had to experience similar sorts of treatment.

I would wish my mother would complain but I know she won't, she's not of that ilke.

i am very sorry for your loss pinky.

> That just about sums up the general treatment in the NHS

it sounds like your dad had a terrible time but thats not true of everyone. some hospitals are better than others are and some staff are wonderful. i had great care taken of me for most of my stay last year.

Yes and it's the fact that some areas or hospitals are better than others that is wrong, I thought was a NATIONAL Health Service, i.e. the same treatment for all, and hopefully good treatment for all but,   ce la vie.

As someone said earlier

>Maybe things will change, my Dad's generation aren't the sort to speak out, it wasn't the way they were bought up. Mum didn't want me to complain at the time about what had happened, she didn't want to 'make a fuss'.

My mum and step dad were exactly the same, in the end it was me who complained about my step dads treatment (against the wishes of my mum).  Perhaps things will get better as our generation are not so worried about "making a fuss", but that is no excuse for the treatment this generation seem to be receiving.  If anyone else here is put in a similar position in the future please complain about it and try and get it changed.  With my step dad the hospital knew he would not be leaving and was there to die (we knew it too) and because of that it was almost as if it didn't matter how he was treated, but as I said earlier when I made an official complaint his treatment did improve.  I suspect this is what we have to do, if the hospital management knows people will not stand for it perhaps they will do something about it.

The worry about complaining is that in the main they are left at the mercy of whoever you have complained against. I know with Dad we were worried as he wasn't able to do anything for himself and you just have this sneaking worry that he would have treated even worse.

http://www.nhs.uk/choiceintheNHS/Rightsandpledges/complaints/Pages/NHScomplaints.aspx

I have found over the years the best one to complain to is your consultant!

> The worry about complaining is that in the main they are left at the mercy of whoever you have complained against. I know with Dad we were worried as he wasn't able to do anything for himself and you just have this sneaking worry that he would have treated even worse.

But if you don't complain nothing will change, I got to the point where seeing my seriously ill step dad not eating because no one would feed him and seeing him in a wet bed because the staff were not monitoring him properly got too much.  To be honest his treatment couldn't have got much worse. 

Oh I agree entirely and believe me I am not usually slow in coming forward. You know, they just shouldn't be in that situation though should they.

No they shouldn't be in that position, and we shouldn't have to complain. 

If you do complain make it via your MP. I did as well I did not want to sue anyone and did not ,Im not interested in money which takes more out of the NHS I wanted better care. Weekend cover through their own GP's so they have access to full medical records and know whats wrong.

I can't fault our local hospital but Mum would not go there she thought as it was in her head they would shut her away, all the time she was physically ill. The final diagnosis was about 3 months before she died, too late to do anything and she would not leave home. But I just wish from the Thursday to the Monday she had care any care at all was better than what we got.

My Mum was 69 when she died not really old old, last week we buried her sister at 80 she had 11 years more than her sister, its not right.

I hope you do feel better soon in yourself you did your best, but sometimes we just cant help.

This sounds very familiar, I lost Mom 5years ago, she drove over to Birmingham a very well women. She went to help my sister fit a lounge carpet and had a heart attack. Went into our local Hospital, had good treatment. In the CCU but! after returning to my sisters had another attack. CCU was good again, then she put on to ward 7 at GHH. The care was disgraceful, We tried to be there as much as we could as she  was going into heart failure. There was no staff,  she couldn't even reach her drinks or meals, they were just left on the side, they had load of foreign agence staff, who could not have cared less. I asked one to help me move mom up the bed, she said she wasn't paid for that, so I struggled and did it myself. Mom had bed sores. My daughter who is a midwife, went and seen the state of her, put in a complaint to get a better mattress. They would say, she had been given medication, when no-one had entered the room. The more you complained the worse they were to her. Mom had gone diabetic, they were giving her injections, when she had not been given food. Agency nurses have no-one to anwer to. A lot have communication problems. The money the NHS spends on agency staff they could employ proper qualified nursing staff. There are no health care workers. I called one night at about 11pm to spot check on Mom, she was hungry and wanted some strawberries, now, we are in December! so a trip to Tesco's to get some. It made her night we lost her in a so called coma, at 4 oclock in the morning. She also had many falls out of bed trying to reach things and left on the floor all night.Parts of our health service is getting like the 3rd world countries.

Denese   

Locally that place is called No H H.

It is so distressing to hear these stories and Im so sorry you all had to go through this,personally I think
its about time we stopped supporting other countries,wasting money on  MP's expenses and
wasting money left right and centre and get our OWN country into order.

> I thought was a NATIONAL Health Service, i.e. the same treatment for all, and hopefully good treatment for all

the same treatment should be available but there are always going to be variations between how good staff are etc just because we're human.

i think you should make a complaint though because what you've told us is straight out neglect. I'm sure the marie curie nurses would vouch for you.

Carolyn, I agree. When I had 2 of my babies in GH hospital it was excellient services. 1968 and 1986. My daughter had a baby 7 weeks ago. She was started off and left on her own never checked on. When she started, she went striaght into delivery, she had a job to get to a buzzer. She was not given gas and air, any pain killers, she was taken into a side room. There was no health workers, I had to clean her up myself, with a new s.t. and a sick bowl. When we left her in a ward at 2.30am on her own. She was not even given a jug of water ever mind a cup of tea or coffee, she was breast feeding. Thank God my other daughter took her little one to school in the morning and they could not stop her going in to the ward as they did us, She went to bath baby so my daughter could have a shower and clean her self up.(my daughters a midewife, with higher qual: than most on the ward) so they would not dared to have stopped her.
The problem is what do we do? We can't loose a Hospital this side of the city! The Hostpital the other side of Birmingham would take 3/4 of an hour to get to if there are no traffic jams. Some illnesses, you would be dead before you got there.

Denese

I want to say that I have NEVER needed to complain to the NHS.

The care and attention my Mum has received has been second to only what care we as a family would offer. I had truely wonderful times during both pregnancies and births and have always received the upmost respect from any health care perofessional I have met. Even those I have not agreed with. That was only an opinion on laying a baby on its stomach and conflict on attitudes to children weight !!

So to all you nurses who have posted..THANK YOU

> The Hostpital the other side of Birmingham would take 3/4 of an hour to get to if there are no traffic jams. Some illnesses, you would be dead before you got there.
>

Less than 3/4 an hour to get to a hospital? You are so lucky as many people living in rural areas have a far longer journey than that! I'm not that rural and it would take me around that time without heavy traffic!

We live approx 3miles from our local hospital that used to be fine in the past, I have had very good treatment from the staff and Doctors. I was shocked the way they treated my Mother, if she had been in her home village, she would have been sent to The Queens Med. Centre in Nottingham.
My daughters other little one is only 2 .1/2 years old and the care in the maternity unit has dropped dreadfully. Due to lack of staff.
You only get one kick at life, and our health service used to be somethink that England could be so proud off.
There is now a baby boom!! so what will happen now! Lack off staff, overwork the staff , so they become ill.
It is getting very worrying. Unless you are in the private health sector.
I am afraid the elderly do not seem to be getting a good deal out of it at present.

Denese