My daughter is out of hospital at the moment.  However the treatment she received did not improve. there was continual lack of information, no doctor visits, no painkillers given even when she was in sever pain. There was no reason given. She just kept getting told they would bring some along soon but they never materialised.
She was discharged one morning and then called and told to return to hospital later that day as apparently she was discharged in error. Then when she was finally discharged after waiting most of the day for a letter medication etc she was told that she should have been discharged the day before but no-one had got round to doing it.

there were plenty of other instances where the care was seriously lacking.

Now my daughter has to return in 3 weeks for further treatment as even though she was supposed to have a procedure last week and was anaesthetised it didn't happen. After all the stress and upset my daughter has made a formal complaint through PALS. She has also said that she wants a different consultant as she has completely lost confidence in her current one.

the hospital have said they will see if they can find her a different Dr but didn't seem confident.  She has been told she will be contacted  next week about the complaint. What can we expect to happen about the complaint? Obviously the hospital has noted her unhappiness but will anything be done to improve her treatment when she goes back for her procedure? She is so distressed about the thought of going back to the hospital again

Go to her GP and explain the situation and they should search for and refer her to another consultant which could be at the same or a different hospital.

I can't believe that there isn't another consultant who can take her over, I just hope that it won't delay her treatment.
I am sorry she is having such a bad time, when you have worked in the industry yourself it is hard to see how they could have got it so wrong.

What size of a hospital is it, with all the hoops hospitals have to jump through these days I am surprised this one hasn't fallen foul of the men in suits if this is normal practice.

Some of the problems may be down to the staff on the ward, her named nurse should have been on top of arranging her discharge and I can't explain how she could have been discharged in error, if things are rather slack on the ward then things are going to be missed/allowed to slide which isn't good. Drs who are less than diligent will get away with murder on a slack ward, I have seen them come to our ward after being somewhere like that and get a real shock as we expected to know where they were every minute, no sciving off to meet up with their mates in the canteen in the hopes no one found them as it was a long way from the ward, they would get one warning from the nursing staff and if things didn't improve the consultant would be informed, many consultants I had known since they were junior Drs and was on first name terms with much to the amusement of my younger colleagues.

Wards with the same speciality can be run completely differently depending on who is in charge, usually the older the person the better as too many youngsters with very little experience are being promoted these days because they have the right paper qualifications but not the hands on. So as well as a change in consultant I would ask for a change of ward too.

I can't imagine leaving a patient in pain, promising meds and then not coming back with them, there are nurses I have known who have promised to get something for a patient and not followed through but never with medication, I'm afraid I would have hounded them till I got it, my finger would constantly been on the buzzer if I couldn't physically get up and go find the nurses.

I hope you get this sorted so your daughter can be more relaxed for her next admission.

It is quite a big hospital covering a large area. Speaking to other people on the ward they also have similar experiences and when discussing with other people when we say which hospital it is then they nod and say yes they thought so. SO it appears the hospital is known for a low standard of care, at least anecdotaly.

She had been insever pain for 24 hours with no pain releif when she was discharged the frst time. SHe had to have a wheelchair to get her to the car as she couldn't walk the pain was too bad. I know I shouldn't but when I took her hoome I gave her some of my painkillers for my back as she was struggling so much. She is not the sort of person to make a fuss or complain so I know the pain must have been bad. Even when she went back later that day when the hospital recalled her she still didn't get any pain releif.

She has been making notes for the last couple of weeks detailing what times she asked staff for information and their responses. It makes interesting reading. SHe would ask the nurses when the Dr would be round and would hear them on the phone to him but still no visit from anyone. It is not just that the consultant didn't see her, she didn't get to see even junior doctors for days on end. I wish there was different hospital she could go to for the rest of the treatment but without transport she would find that very difficult

I wish there was different hospital she could go to for the rest of the treatment but without transport she would find that very difficult

Then I would go to your GP and explain all your daughters problems, take her diary of lack of care and request a new hospital if this one is so bad and then request patient transport - it does exist, my father volunteered as a patient transport driver for years with his local hospital, most of the patients he collected lived within about 10 miles of the hospital but he would regularly do trips of 30-40 miles and a couple of times a month he would do long trips of anywhere from 60-100 miles to transport a patient to or from hospital.  If your GP can't help in this then perhaps PALS would be able to tell you who is supposed to arrange patient transport.

Thank you Luddingtonhall. I didn't know there was such a thing as patient transport. I have told my daughter and she will look into it tomorrow.

We would admit and discharge patients using a hospital acquired taxi, much cheaper than an ambulance as there would be a contract with a local taxi firm.

Sorry that your options re hospitals is so narrow.