"If only Royal Oldham hospital got it right first time..."

My mum has Alzheimer's, osteoperosis and arthritis. In April 2011 she fell and broke her hip. She was admitted to the Royal Oldham Hospital where she had an operation to pin the broken hip the next day. Unfortunately the surgeon had delegated responsibility to his registrar who had pinned the hip incorrectly. The operation had to be repeated by the surgeon. Whilst operating, the surgeon decided that a full hip replacement was the best option.

Unfortunately, this was not the end of it. The new hip became infected, which resulted in mum being drip fed antibiotics for 6 weeks whilst remaining bed-ridden. As you can imagine anyone with Alzheimer's has no idea what is happening to them and mum's mental state deteriorated rapidly.

She also had a fall on the ward and broke her wrist. I asked if there was a dementia ward and the answer was 'no and they cannot be watched all the time'. She fell again and broke her other hip, which was pinned.

All in all she was there for around 6 months of hell. On release, she is now mostly wheelchair bound, needs constant care in every aspect with mostly no knowledge of where she is, who she is, who we are etc. She is now back there again with infection and most of the staff seem no better. Her mental state is worse and she lashes out. Most of the staff appear to have no idea how do deal with dementia. Often they don't know what medication she is taking, although we have told them. Nurses they almost always say "I've only just come on duty so I don't know".

We have offered to go to help at mealtimes and with medication but they don't want it. They don't know her history at the hospital, which I find bizarre. Are records not kept on a database that they can look up?

Anyone with relatives who have dementia and need to go in the ROH - keep a close eye on what is happening.