"Overall, we were pleased that my mother was able..."

What could be improved

My 92 year old mother recently had a hip replacement at the City General hospital. My sister and I both live at a distance from my mother - in my case 150 miles away, and my sister 100 miles - so I was only able to visit her at the General twice while she was in the orthopaedic ward. It would have been very helpful if, as was the case in the other hospitals she was in during this period, the ward had been able to offer a patients' phone. One nurse asked if she had a mobile, but at 92 this is not very practical. We had to rely on the nurses passing on the information that we had tried to phone.