"Poor standards of care for those that are..."

As a carer for my elderly father the paramedics to date have been brilliant. Unfortunately this level of service deminished upon arrival at A & E I was told that my father was being assessed and I would be called shortly to be with him. It was important for me to be with him as he has a short term memory loss so has difficulty relaying information and he also has poor mobility and this was noted by the paramedics in their report. I waited an hour and upon enquiry in regard to what was happening it was evident I had been forgotten. I stood waiting to be informed but I seemed to be totally ignored or was I invisable? Eventually someone who I assumed to be a doctor spoke in broken English that I deciphered to as indicate my father would remain in hospital overnight, I left at 11:30p.m. At 1:30a.m I was telephone at home by a medic from the Acute Assessment Unit to ask me questions in regard to my father as he was unable to tell them anything. What a pity no one bothered to ask me these specific questions whilst I was waiting around at the hospital. The following day I arrived at AAU at visiting and no one enquired who I was or even acknowleged my prescence. After a few minutes a porter suddenly appeared and out of the blue my father was transferred to a ward. Upon arrival to the ward I asked for someone to tell me something about my father's health as so far I had been told nothing and at this point I was spoken to and informed from the medics notes. No one to date has asked ME about my fathers basic care needs. Staff are inconsistent with their guidance so whatever you try and do to help and care for your relative on the ward is never right and they make that very clear to you! Some staff are of course more approachable and caring than others so you soon learn which ones to try and avoid. From my observations if you are a vulnerable, confused/memory loss patient it is definately in your favour to have someone to oversee basic care as they appear not to be considered as an importance, for example food can be taken away before a chance to eat it, questions are asked that cannot reliably be answeredsuch as fluid intake. It is worth reading the patient care notes as they may reveal when your relative has fallen on the ward, on two occasions I have not been made aware of this. As noted in other reviews there are definately times when patients require assistance and there is no staff prescence. Hence, those deemed at risk of falling can do so! Wards are very noisy so sleep deprivation is problematic and does not contribute towards a speedy recovery.