"To sum up, I would give the care, a zero"

My mother was taken to A&E at New Cross just around lunch time. Waiting time in here was absolutely disgusting. 7 hours my mother was on a trolley bed in the corridor of A&E. It was like a bad day on the M6. 13 trolleys lined the passage way with no where to put patients. Hospital was full with no beds. At 7pm that night she was finally looked at in a cubicle then spent another 3 hours there before a bed became available in the acute medical assessment unit. My mother is 86 years old and was in a very fragile state. This was very unacceptable. It was nearly 11pm at night before she was taken to unit.

She remained in the unit for two days, then was moved to c16 ward where I felt the care was poor. That day it was diagnosed that she had flu so was moved to a side room for barrier nursing. The phrase out of sight out of mind is the only way I can describe the care she had in there. She was very isolated as door could not be kept open due to flu contamination, which I fully understand but to me care in these rooms should be more & should take more priority as these people are more vulnerable and need extra attention. Eg when mom needed commode it would take at least 30 minutes for someone to attend when she pressed her buzzer, and then was left for at least 30 minutes before being taken off. This is totally in unacceptable. Mom was in constant pain because of this wait, and nearly always had an accident. Other issues were meal times, and several occasions meals were late or she was missed. This only came to light when they came to collect plates, not realising she hadn't been given meal. Again, totally unacceptable.

To sum up her stay on this ward I would give the care a zero, this needs to be sorted as nurses seemed stressed and run off there feet. People on this ward are all elderly and need to be treated with kindness and consideration because of being so poorly.

I feel so sorry I have to write this story but feel very frustrated at the way she was handled from her admittance to discharge.

Hoping this will assist you in sorting out problems within this nhs hospital.