"My Father was not looked after properly"

My elderly father was recently admitted through an emergency call after having a mild heart attack. All the medical procedures were done correctly, including subsequent tests and decisions. However the care he received on the ward was sub-standard. The medicalization of his problems meant that we as a family had to raise a complaint before the medical staff paid attention to our concerns and what was already in place and available to our father in terms of support and community care. On the ward there were not sufficient staff to cope with his dementia, diabetes and general need of being a vulnerable elderly man. He was taken off his diabetic medication for a scan but nothing was put in place until I complained to deal with his toileting needs. Worse still he went a day without food because he declined it and if his family had not visited an elderly diabetic man would have gone all day without food. None of this was picked up until I complained to a ward manager. My father is dying of cancer and already under palliative care at another hospital. This had to be stressed several times because the great failure of the modern health service is that everyone is operating in a separate silo dealing with medical problems and unable to cross talk or access other systems to know what has already been done with a patient. In short they do not treat patients in a person centred way and individuals get sucked into a cumbersome system that ultimately does not look after them. Imagine the elderly person with no family, imagine the elderly person whose first language is not English. How would they fare in such a cumbersome inefficient system. Whilst we are grateful for the medical care and tests that eliminated the further risks to my father's health. We should not have been in a position to complain to get him decent basic care. To add insult to injury having finally got him to the position of going home, he was left for hours waiting for transport in a hospital gown, nothing else, even though he had some clothes, and sent home in that. When the ambulance door opened all his intimate areas were visible and even without this insult to his dignity, who leaves an elderly man in his late eighties dying of cancer for hours in nothing but an open backed hospital gown, especially when he had some clothes and slippers with him. He was left with just socks on his feet.