"Unhappy with my grandad's care at Northampton General"

A week ago my grandad was placed on the Talbot and Butler Ward in Northampton General Hospital. After a few days he was moved on to Allbone Ward.

My mum and dad went to visit my grandad with other members of the family meeting them there. And he had taken a turn for the worse - I feel due to a lack of care.

It was noticed that his bed sores had not been treated since moving on to the ward and it has now been discovered he has gangrene. My family questioned the nurses as to why this had not been treated and their response was "We couldn't give him anything for this, as the results had not come back". So cleaning it regularly was out of the question, and how long does it take for results to come back?

They stated he was already on antibiotics, but the antibiotics he is on were given to him by his doctor not in the hospital, it had got nothing to do with the bed sores. But I ask myself how many times do you go to the doctor's for an infection and their answer to everything is a general antibiotic? Why could they not do this until they understood what they would need to do?

Then yesterday my mother noticed that my grandad had only been given 250ml of water throughout the day, this was questioned but the nurses said that it was because he couldn't swallow. If he couldn't swallow why hadn't they spoken to a doctor to see if there was something else they could do to get fluid's inside him? And because he couldn't swallow he hadn't been receiving his medication. Then it was noticed that his medical report had not been filled in at all.

Another nurse from another ward noticed the distress of my family and stepped in to question the care. The nurses replied that they were waiting for the evening staff to take over and deal with it, and they don't always fill in the medical reports because they don't have to. How is a doctor supposed to see his development if it isn't recorded?

That same night a nurse that was caring for my grandad walked away from my mum and said "I don't have to listen to you". How rude. I am utterly disgusted by the so called professional care that my grandad has received at the hospital. What made me laugh even more was, I saw an advertisement for new nurses to help make the future of their hospital better.