"Seems to be a lack of care for what the patient..."

What I liked

Dad has a nice clean side room with en suite bathroom, and the nursing staff are friendly.

What could be improved

My elderly father has been in hospital for nearly a month now with no diagnosis as yet. Whilst I appreciate that he may have a difficult illness to diagnose, the communication between the consultant/doctors and our family has been appalling. It is almost impossible to get hold of the same doctor twice and get any coherent update on my father's test results and treatment. The doctors are also not explaining things fully to my father, who is, as a result, worrying unnecessarily about what may or may not happen. This combined with the atrocious (and hugely expensive) patient telephone system, which only appears to work 50 % of the time, is resulting in a lot of unneccessary upset and frustration, which, frankly, we could all do without. In addition, some of the cleaning staff regularly move Dad's bed table away to clean, without moving it back, so he is often left without food or drink, and despite being unable to walk unaided, drinks are often left on the other side of the room for him. Our experience of Broomfield Hospital so far has not been a reassuring one.