"Ignoring her needs as a patient with a visual disability "

My elderly relative has been in Good Hope for some time and in that time I have seen her condition deteriorate so much so that she is a shadow of her former self. She entered hospital with a fracture and has left confused, incontinent and distressed. Her family are extremely close and will not stand by and ignore the poor treatment she experienced.

I believe a formal complaint has been made by other family members BUT I want to make it clear the treatment and errors made by Good Hope.

1. Ignoring concerns about the patients well being by those who know her best.

2. Ignoring her needs as a patient with a visual disability - why oh why give a visually impaired patient tablets in a tiny pot she can't see?

3. How do you know she has taken the medication which could quite easily be dropped on the floor?

4. Leaving her covered in food because she can't see to eat so that it dries on her clothes?

5. Having no visual indication to ward staff that she is visually impaired!

6. Discharge information in a font that she can't read.

7. Discharge information that was factually incorrect and a social worker who laughed when the mistakes were pointed out.

8. Misinformation to the nursing home.

The lady in question is valued by so many people, friends and family and she deserves better! Some staff when I visited were exceptionally kind but they were rather the exception. Too many staff were dismissive of her needs regarding her as a dementia patient rather than someone with poor sight.

It's not good enough. She is lucky in that her family are intelligent and assertive enough to speak out when things are not right. However what happens to those people without relatives or friends?

The family have photographs to support all their assertions and I myself have witnessed their lack of compassion. Next step I feel should be Andrew Mitchell MP but that decision rests with the whole family.