"Upsetting and disappointing"

What I liked

Some staff were extremely kind and professional

What could be improved

Communication.

Communication of diagnosis and prognosis (cancer) by health care professionals to my father could have been much better (staging and terminal diagnosis was not made clear).

The observation by a paramedic that he should have signed a DNR (when an ambulance was called after my father fell) was extremely distressing to my father. The physicians had not told my father that his disease was terminal and he expected to live for several more years.

Communication between hospital, GP and MacMillan nurses appeared to be almost non-existent, meaning that my father did not receive important medications whilst at home (which may have delayed disease progression), his pain was not controlled and he appeared to receive no support or help from Macmillan nurses at the end of his life apart from the provision of a carrier bag full of milkshakes.

Anything else?

The care my father received at the end of his life was not satisfactory. Starting with his GP's misdiagnosing pain due to metastatic prostate cancer as a slipped disc to the repeated visits to A&E and acute admissions for pain and symtom control between scheduled outpatient visits.