"Covid positive, health conditions and emergency care"

My dad has several severe co-morbidity conditions making him extremely vulnerable to COVID.  He contracted COVID last week and started to become symptomatic. 

We contacted out of hours who advised him to go to A&E and that he would be admitted for treatment due to his conditions rather than wait till he got worse.  As advised he went to A&E and sat in the waiting room with all other patients. 

He was advising other patients who went to sit near him that he was positive.  He had triage and bloods done but 5 hours of sitting in the chair later he decided he would needed to go home to lie down. 

My mum went in to find a doctor to ask what was happening and advise otherwise he was ready to leave.  The doctor called him shortly afterwards, refused to allow my mum to accompany him, and said he was not ill enough to be admitted and he was discharged and told to drink water.

In the week after this, he deteriorated further and his GP advised us to call the ambulance.  The ambulance arrived very promptly, treated him with oxygen and took him into Craigavon A&E. 

By the evening having not heard from my dad we tried calling to see how he was but no one would answer the phone in the green area after trying several times. 

I went to the hospital that night to see him and find out his condition.  I stood in the green area at the staff station, clearly needing to speak to someone and no one acknowledged I was even there. I had to directly approach a nurse to ask where my dad was. 

The nurse did not allow me to see him, even though I work in a hospital and I could have sat with him all night with no mask and still be allowed to go to work the next day. 

They gave me a brief outline of how he was and that he was being transferred and said to ring at 12pm to see where he was going. 

I tried ringing at 12 and someone did eventually answer the phone and then put me on hold for 30 minutes, I hung up. 

The next morning I tried to ring again and no one answered and I got the impression from the reception staff that there's nothing new there.  Eventually my mum went over and into his cubicle to check on him and found he was on antibiotics he has an allergy to and was starting to have a reaction.

We often feel that my dad is not in safe hands in this hospital.  I know staff are busy but the patient care which extends to family communication is often missing. 

We have complained before that due to my dads complex health needs and that he doesn't always tell medical staff everything. He should not be alone in the a&e and yet time and again we are refused entry.  Had he been treated when we went to a&e the first time, he may not have needed to take up ambulance resource and require more acute care.  

The covid rules need some logic applied, my parents can sit together with all other patients in the waiting room covid positive, but once he's in a separate cubicle we couldn't wait with him?

I feel communication, reading patients allergies and underlying conditions and general care could do with significant improvement.