"Broken lines of communication"

Times are approx. Written on behalf of my father and mother.

* Saturday afternoon/evening:

My father (78) attended A&E early Saturday evening, arriving by Ambulance with my Mother at ~18:30.

My Father previously had a hernia operation on the Monday at Castle Hill and on Saturday afternoon his groin became swollen and "999" called for an Ambulance. They were taken into a cubicle in A&E and my father was put onto a trolley/bed. Then: ~19:00 a nurse started taken my father blood pressure. Left the cubicle.

~19:10 my mother went to the nurses station to find out what was happening with taking the pressure. No one knew about it. The nurse who had started the procedure had gone off shift. Another nurse took the pressure and blood and left.

~19:45 My mother went back to the nurses station, a new nurse, and asked what was happening. The nurse, at first, would not make eye-contact, or acknowledge my mother was talking to them, then they got up and walked to the cubicle. Looking at the nurses notes they realised that none of the previous tests had been recorded. The nurse carried out the tests again and recorded them.

~21:00 A doctor saw my father with another junior doctor, they diagnosed an infection and had a drip set up to administer antibiotics. They came back later to say that they had spoken to someone about what had happened and they had arranged a meeting with my father's Consultant at Castle Hill for Monday, at 09:00.

~01:00 My father and mother were taken home by their granddaughter.

After the bad start, once the second shift was on, my father and mother could not fault them, they ensured that they were kept isolated from the other A&E attendees (drunks, etc...) and kept checking up on them, even organised a contract-car to take them home, but it wasn't needed in the end.

* Monday morning:

My Father and Mother attended Castle Hill, arriving at 8am for the 9am meeting with the doctor and went to reception: Reception had no record of the meeting.

Castle Hill have been fantastic today, and they are looking after my father. The current diagnosis is that it may be a second hernia and not an infection.