"Do Not Put Your Elderly Relative In This Hospital"

My mother has the misfortune to currently be an inpatient.

The elderly care section of this hospital should be inspected with a view to closure. The doctor who is currently in charge of elderly care, despite letters and phone calls, refuses to answer any questions - ignoring reasonable and orthodox approaches No wonder, the department is run in such a substandard manner.

Maltreatment, maladministration and bad practice is commonplace. The senior staff on the ward are allowed to treat relatives/carers rudely and in a bullying manner, without any check and with the full knowledge of the doctor in charge.

The doctors flout NHS guidelines on many occasions, Checklists are filled in inaccurately and with insufficient English grasp. This task is allowed to be done by the non-nursing staff who have little comprehension of written English, or the medical conditions they need to address. The lists are completed without the knowledge of carers/relatives - against NHS guidelines which clearly state that relatives or carers should; a) know these are being completed, and b) be in attendance when they are completed. Care Needs Plans are not issued and are only provided when you it is absolutely insisted. Heavy, dangerous psychotic drugs, which carry warnings against their use for elderly dementia patients are administered freely and without the specified NHS consultation (and contrary to NHS/Maudsley guidelines) with relatives or carers.

Elderly, alert people are given medication, on admission, that they are not used to which suppresses them enough for the nursing staff to "manage".Often leading to alert people lying asleep in their beds most of the day.

This is a dangerous hospital for the elderly. I have many a sleepless night worrying about the conditions there, that no-one seems to want to do anything to improve.

It's a waste of time to call their PALS (48 hour wait for reply), or KC Complaints Department, who will all ignore any comment or complaint or, worse still, send it back to the department the complaint is being made about.