"Frightened wee auld wifie"

My 88 year old mum fell ill and after a couple of days it was apparent she needed more than bed rest. A call to our local GP saw a local advanced nurse practitioner (ANP) come out within an hour, and was friendly, witty, reassuring and professional. After establishing my mum's blood pressure was through the floor, and that she'd fallen, perhaps hit her head, and because she's on blood thinners, concerned about a possible bleed on the brain, so the ANP arranged for an ambulance and admission to hospital, because of that possible bleed, through A&E. 

The ambulance crew were equally fabbie - patient, reassuring, and again oozed professionalism. They were clear that on arrival at A&E there'd be an extensive wait sitting in the ambulance on the apron outside of A&E so having a warm dressing gown, a shawl, etc, was a good plan. Seven hours after arriving at the door of A&E, she was taken in. During that time, the two highly professional, well-trained, ambulance crew members, and of course the ambulance, were tied up offering 2 - 1 care for those seven hours, instead of being able to help others in need. The crew offered hot drinks, snacks, and were generally incredibly caring, and very good company for those long hours.

On admission to A&E, it took around three hours to get a head scan and x-ray (remembering that takes my mum to about 12 hours to get to this point with a possible bleed on the brain). A few more hours sitting about and she was admitted to a general medicine ward, where, happily she had a blanket from home in her bag as it was freezing. I tried calling the ward every 30 minutes or so throughout the day and either it just rang out or went dead. Eventually I got an answer around 19:30 and a brief update on my mother's condition.

A move from there to another ward the next day, that my mum remembered when she worked there as an auxiliary nurse, as being a kitchen, that she described as a holding shed. Understaffed, overworked, only three combined toilets/shower rooms for everybody in the ward, nobody to help her get to and from the toilet, and again it was freezing. None of my calls were answered. After a day in there she asked to be discharged as sleep was impossible through noise (and she's deaf!) and being so cold. I got a phone call around 11am from a nurse on the ward, whose English was basic at best, telling me that she was being discharged, but not that she had asked to be, and when could I come and get her. I thought I'd agreed 3pm but I'm not convinced the nurse understood much of the conversation. I got another call around 1;30pm to say that she'd been transferred to the "discharge lounge" (sounds like someplace to go where everybody has weeping sores) and I should pick her up from there.

Just after 3pm I arrived at the discharge lounge and she was sitting in a chair in a corner. I went to the desk and said I was in to collect her as arranged and was told we're just waiting for her meds and it'd just be a few minutes. Aye, right! I fell for that rubbish earlier in the year when we waited six hours for her meds to turn up. I told the desk staff if it wasn't ready by the time I found a wheelchair they should phone me when it was and I'd come back in to get it. Protests from the desk staff that it won't be long and if I didn't wait I had to be back before they closed at 6:30pm.

So, I got a chair, the meds weren't there, we left. I got mum home, heating on, fire on, made her some food, listened to her horror stories of the holding shed.

About 5:45pm, and still no phone call from the discharge lounge about her meds, I left her to drive back to the hospital and got to the discharge lounge about 18:00. Her meds still weren't available. I get the strong impression that they'd just forgotten all about them and only when I walked in through the door they suddenly remembered. When I asked, the desk staff said that the issue was completely down to the pharmacy not being able to provide the service because of understaffing and overwork, and the discharge lounge staff had done everything they possibly could to chase it up. So much for just a few minutes. 

The meds arrived at 18:10 and the desk staff did something on computer before handing them over. The bag that they arrived in had a label on the outside that seems to me to indicate they were ready at 15:07 and had been requested for 16:00 (even though I thought I'd agreed 15:00 to collect my mum). 

Not a positive experience. Consistently bad when compared with her last visit. Field and ambulance staff truly exemplary, once through the doors of the hospital there's no time or place for care, only for medicine. A frightened, deaf, 88-year-old, shunted around the hospital with no explanation. There are some excellent individuals around, but no teams or teamwork apparent, no joined-up-ness. Honesty is lacking. 

I am grateful for the medical help that my mum received, and appreciate that staff are overworked, underpaid, poorly supported, badly managed, left to their own devices too much, stressed, and so on. It's really bad,.