"My mother's care on Brightlingsea Ward"

My mother was admitted to hospital with severe pains. Shingles was diagnosed and she was moved into a small side ward because of infection.

The ward tried to discharge her at 11pm which she explained was not possible because my father would have put the chain on the front door and taken his hearing aid out so she could not enter the house.

When I arrived at 9am the following morning I found her in great pain having had no pain killers that morning. She was complaining of a pain in her side and nausea. Soon after my arrival a nurse did administer pain killers - 3 hours after my mother had requested them. She was discharged and came to me with pain killers and anti-virals.

She was unable to eat much because of the nausea and I used herbal remedies to help combat it. Two evenings later the pain in her side was so severe that she spent the whole night crying out in pain and retching because of the nausea. Worried about this I called the paramedics who arranged for an emergency appointment with my GP.

She has now been prescribed tablets for the nausea, it has been explained that she has post-herpetic neuralgia and time was taken to reassure her and talk through her concerns. The medication should all have been given by the hospital before she left and the possibility of post-herpetic neuralgia explained. These errors have caused every one a lot of worry and concern, please do not let it happen to anyone else.