"My elderly father's recent stay"

My father is in his 80s and was recently admitted to hospital via ambulance as an emergency, then to Station 2. Overall his care was very good but this seemed to depend on which staff were on shift on the ward, nurses and nursing assistants.

I went to visit dad, no sign of him. Thought he was in the loo, so waited ten minutes and then went to ask at the nurses station. Nobody knew where he was! He was found in the TV room. That evening I received a call to say dad fell on the ward just after teatime but seemed to be ok. X-rays were all fine.

I called due to filthy washing left in an ordinary bag which my husband brought back after visiting (there had been the odd accident, but usually rinsed and bagged in the red bags, but that week a few times I had slightly dirty washing). It was covered in excrement and was stinking. Not sure who dad's nurse was who came on the phone as they didn't give their name. I politely asked if dad had a bowel problem and was told no, he's just been caught short. I explained there had been a few times that week and was wondering if something else was wrong. The nurse replied no, I'll get them to toilet him more!

The next day I spoke to a nurse, who apologised and said the washing should've been rinsed and put in a red bag. We spoke about dad having a bit of delirium and next day they said they'd carried out a cognitive test and after a UTI was ruled out a referral would go to the geriatric mental health team as he hadn't scored very well.

The following evening we received a phone call to say dad was being moved ready for his discharge home. Nobody had mentioned he was to be discharged at all (plus the mental health assessment was still to be carried out), and the next morning myself and husband went to speak to the charge nurse, who we found very rude and extremely uncaring, uninterested, and didn't seem to give a hoot that there had been zero communication about my dad to myself as I'm POA), who insisted the council care team had liaised with me (which they hadn't), insisted my dad didn't have delirium and he'd be getting discharged anyway and wouldn't be getting a mental health assessment.

We asked if he was bowel incontinent and were told he definitely wasn't. The discharge letter given to the council care team had a lot of dad's problems missing from it. He was brought home by patient ambulance and was still wearing the exact same pyjamas from four days earlier, even though I'd said to two nursing assistants that he needed to be showered and changed - they looked at me as if to say no and walked off - and mentioned to nurses, he wasn't. As he has a long-term catheter in, he could've ended up with another infection, God knows if that had been cleaned regularly.

The discharge letter says surgically fit for discharge home as well, not clinically or medically fit. Not once was I spoken to by a doctor, no liaising regarding assessments or discharge. Other patients reported to me that dad (who due to bad mobility needs help with the loo) was left sitting for up to 25 minutes after buzzing for help to the toilet before a nursing assistant would appear. Physios were always on how he should be walking to the toilet, but certain nursing assistants would bring the commode. Majority of the time they were too late either way!

I feel that NHS values of care and compassion, dignity and respect, openness, honesty and responsibility, quality and teamwork are seriously lacking in Station 2. I feel sorry for the decent, hardworking people in there who stick to those values above and have to work with people who don't appear to give a damn. Frightening for vulnerable patients as well.

Myself and family are totally disgusted.