"Unprofessional Staff at Queens Hospital"

My mother was admitted into Queens, Romford last October with ulcerated legs. For 2 weeks all she had was medication to try to ease the pain. On numerous occasions both my sister and I fronted the medical staff on what they were going to do. We were just told that they were trying to control her pain. She was at the stage where she could not even lay on the bed but had to sit on the side with her legs down. She fell on 3 occasions and banged her head.

on her third week there we noticed her feet were turning a funny colour (they actually looked as though she had frostbite). The doctor was called and he immediately said she needed an operation.

This was done the following day, but unfortunately this did not work and she was told in order to save her life they would have to amputate her legs.

My mother suffered from emphysema and was on oxygen 24/7. She was 78 years old and very weak. She refused to have the operation and consequently died.

Whilst she was in Ocean B ward she had a bad experience with a staff nurse there. She needed help to use the commode and was told by this staff nurse to do it herself. The records show that my mum needed assistance with all forms of care. There was a witness to the incident, who unfortunately went home the day after this happened, but she told me (and she was a young girl) that the said person stood in front of my mum with his arms folded and a smirk on his face and told her to do it herself as should would have to do it by herself when she went home (unfortunately this day never came).

I have gone through all the proper complaints procedure for this, but their investigation is very one sided. They are saying that because the Staff Nurse does not refute what took place i.e. telling her to do it herself, apparently this was to encourage my mum and was intended as a supportive comment to encourage her independence, they did not need to talk to the witness who could have confirmed his rudeness.

My mum was very very upset by the nurse's attitude and I even had to make sure when my mum was still on the ward that when the nurse came back on duty they were to go nowhere near my mum.

I feel very let down by the complaints team and I am going to take this further for this has caused me and my family a lot of upset and stress especially now that she has gone and all we have is bad thoughts of how she was treated in her last days.

I must say though, that if anyone has to stay in the High Dependency Unit that the staff there make their patients feel that they matter and nothing is too much trouble. Felt like she was in a completely different hospital.