"C3 - bedsores and blisters"

My father was admitted into C3 on the 8 June following an assessment in A&E. He was an active independent 86 year old man, who did his own shopping, cooking cleaning etc. He was admitted with terrible pain in his right foot and leg with an associated rash. He was initially treated for shingles. Then after a week his consultant decided it wasn't shingles and that he should be sent home. This despite the fact that the pain could only be controlled by morphine and that by now he had been catheterised and was in a worse condition than when admitted. The family complained to the consultant about the decision to try to send him home - their response to this was to shrug their shoulders at us. We told the consultant we were concerned about the lack of investigative tests as to what the problem was, and we would not let dad be discharged without them. Again the consultant shrugged at us, but the tests did follow over the next two weeks. However, the lack of care afforded in this ward (about which we had to speak to the nurse in charge on more than one occasion) resulted in dad developing bed sores and heel blisters. These have been the cause of much pain and distress to dad and are now the primary reason for him not being able to return to living independently. In fact he has now had to be readmitted to the hospital twice and is still suffering with pain and is not able to put weight on his feet. There seemed to be a general disregard about the bed sores and blisters on this ward. Not something shared by medical and social services staff outside of the hospital who all without exception were very concerned by them - but after we told them which ward Dad had been in - I'm sorry to say - were not surprised.