"Understaffing left my dad on the floor"

My dad has cancer, he has been in and out of hospital on numerous occasions and I continue to despair at inadequacies that put people’s lives at risk that needn't be there. Dad was in a side room, having had major surgery, when I visited, you could see the lines of dirt where the cleaners had mopped around things, e.g. the bin - under the foot bar was filthy.

Dad also woke in the middle of the night of his operation and, disorientated, he tried to get out of bed. He stumbled and fell across the room. He said he kept calling but no one came. When he eventually managed to drag himself back to bed, he pressed his buzzer and when no one still came, he resorted to throwing a jug of water across the room at the wall. Eventually a nurse appeared. There's no need for this, someone in clear pain that just needs checking on once in a while, this didn't seem to be happening.

Dad asked one of the nurses to clear some pots off his bed table and was told she wasn't allowed to as it wasn't her job.

I appreciate that the nursing staff do the best they can but my dad's experience isn't good enough. People come to hospital to be cared for, it upset me that dad had fallen and been left on the floor to fend for himself, this is a man who fought for years in the British forces, continually blown up for his country and a few of the nurses who cared for my dad didn't check on him or to give him a wash and change his bed clothes.

Dad was moved to a private hospital where the attitude was totally different and pro active. Nothing was too much trouble for the nurses and they spent the time at night to sit with him for a while when he couldn't sleep so he wasn't alone. That is what nursing is all about.