"The ward where my grandmother ..."

What I liked

The ward where my grandmother was was very clean. She liked the food.

What could be improved

Discharge planning was extremely poor. We eventually found that the nurses had assumed my grandmother would be moved into a nursing home without any prior conversation with her or my father (her main carer). When discharging to home did begin, there was a lack of communication between the coordinator and my father so that he was only told the time of the discharge less than 24 hours in advance. He was assured a care package was in place. No carer turned up for her evening session, nor for the morning one. Social services denied any knowledge of the care plan and said she had to be reassessed.

Anything else?

While some of the nurses and the healthcare assistants were kind and helpful, others were so task orientated they were unable to respond to individual needs. It took my father and me asking for my grandmother to be given support to relieve pressure irritation, despite her regularly telling the staff she was in pain.