"Phoenix Ward"

My mum was admitted to this ward and was given a totally unexpected terminal diagnosis by a member of the neurology team on her own with no nurse present. One of the nurses expressed their surprise that someone else should have been present. On arrival my dad was told the same information with no support, when asking questions he was informed that Derriford would be handling the case and they would not give any other information or answer his questions. A video conference meeting is held every week and her case would be discussed at the next one.

Two days later on the day of the meeting we hoped to get some answers, but were informed that her name had been left off the case list by Treliske and her case would be discussed the following week. In the mean time they wanted to send her home to be cared for by my dad despite the fact it took two people to move her.

On her time on the Phoenix Ward she was informed by one of the care assistants that there were a lot of very sick patients who needed their care implying that my mum did not. This was just four days after the diagnosis and upset her greatly.

She was moved to a local hospital one night where she arrived at 9.40pm which is totally unacceptable. There was very little information supplied by Treliske on her notes. Before her move I spoke to one of the doctors to seek their assurance that we would be informed of the outcome of the meeting the following day. I was told that they would phone me with the outcome.

Of course this did not happen in fact it took the doctor at the local hospital one hour on the day after the meeting to find out the outcome of the meeting and they had to phone Derriford themselves.