"Treatment in A and E 3rd January 2014"

The treatment of my mother and the lady in the next cubicle was appalling. My mother came in by ambulance because she had fallen. The paramedics that treated her at home diagnosed severe urine infection, dehydration, confusion and cold. When Mum got to A and E about lunchtime, it took about two hours for a drip to be set up! Basic stuff. The attending nurse was rude and told me that the paramedics had no right to tell me their diagnosis (even though it was obvious to me and others). I was so angry at his callousness that I when I left the next morning I stuck a note on the wall of the cubicle. The lady next door was suffering from severe diarrhoea and lack of magnesium. She also had to wait way too long for a drip. My mother was taken to X ray whilst I visited the toilet. I came back to find her gone. When she returned I asked the nurse where her clothes were. She had had an accident and he told me he had her permission to cut them off and throw them! She is extremely deaf and at that time also confused, she would not have understood and would not have told him that. He threw away her favourite cashmere cardigan. It again took about an hour and a half from her return to re-instate the drip that was left on her bed despite me keep asking. In desperation I asked a doctor who came into my mother's cubicle by mistake. He had come to rescue the lady next door. I could here him berating the staff for their incompetance and unfulfillment of such basic needs. He returned to my mother and re-instated her drip - thank goodness. Apparently he was called in to help in A and E that evening. I believe he normally works in Resusitation. I cannot thank him enough for stepping into the breach. Shame he is not in charge of the nurses in A and E all the time! I was giving my mother sips of water the whole time she was in A and E and when she was finally transferred to Pembroke ward at 5.30 am the next day, she still hadn't been offered a drink or anything to eat!