"Poor coordination, poor language skills, poor..."

Over the last two weeks mum in law (86) has become increasingly frail. She fell 10 days ago, was taken by ambulance to Wrexham, A&E and given range of tests. My husband (NoK) isn't local. By the time he approached several hours later, he phoned A&E for an update. The phone was picked up after two rings and he was immediately asked to hold. 10 minutes later a different person picked the phone up and asked if anyone was on the line. My husband had the impression that the phone was being answered quickly as part of a target and then just left. He was then told that it was A&E policy not to give any information on the phone. After pressing he was told that his mum was being sent home. They refused to tell him what investigations had been done, that a new antibiotic had been started or what any after care was. They simply said it was policy not to pass on this information! Does a frail 86 year old, living alone, with my husband as the main carer not need better discharge communication than this? A week later she has become more frail and was admitted yesterday to ward three. On three occasions over four hours my husband was told the consultant would come . At 10 pm he asked the night staff when the consultant would come and was told, "the consultant wouldn't come to this ward on a Friday night". It was true that a consultant never came.

My husband asked a good ward manager on the pm shift whether they needed his mother's current medication as he could go and get it from the house if needed. He was categorically told no, not necessarily as drugs had been prescribed and would be given by the night staff. When later my husband asked the night staff when her meds would be given he was told she's not on any meds. He asked to check the charts with the nurse who showed him an empty chart with his mother's name on it. He asked about the charts behind. These charts had all of her multiple meds on and this fact had been completely overlooked by the nurse in question . If my husband had not been there, his mum would not have had her evening medications. The ward manager asked a nurse who was on their phone, to take my mother in law to the loo to collect a urine sample. He had to ask 3 or 4 times as the nurse appeared not to understand. Then the nurse asked my husband if he was taking her to the loo. Eventually they took her to the loo and returned with no sample saying they'd flushed it away. It was a huge strain to get my mother in law to the loo, my husband heard the ward manager ask the nurse several times to get the sample and he himself also stressed it was important. It was evident that the nurse in question neither understood nor cared. When my husband asked for visiting hours he was told 9-9 ( he later found this isn't so) Finally, on leaving, the car park machines didn't take credit cards and didn't give change. Exhausted, he and many others searched for means of paying to leave late at night. In his case, he needed £8. .He is worried for his mum in your care.