"Please speak to families of patients!"

Anything else?

My 80 year old father has been in Preston hospital for well over a month now. He was discharged for a few days but had to be readmitted in an emergency situation. There has been no consultation with us as a family whatsoever despite the fact that he has been critically ill and has a chronic health condition. Staff turnover on wards seems to be very high so there is little opportunity for nurses to become familiar with patients and respond adequately to their needs. Some nurses seem to be working overly long hours which could impact negatively on patient treatment (14 hour shifts sometimes back-to-back)!. My father is getting increasingly distressed regarding his treatment and was discharged to our care without a care plan before being readmitted in a worsened medical state. He has now developed a serious bacterial infection and is in an isolation ward - no member of staff has told us about this - we have found out from the patient! I don't know what is going wrong in terms of patient care and attention, but as a family we feel really distressed and let down by lack of care and communication from all members of staff. He appears to be 'giving up' and says he 'can't go on.' This is because of a serious lack of communication regarding his treatment and his prognosis.