"Too many mistakes made"

Anything else?

This is on behalf of my mother who recently went into the surgical assessment ward.

The nursing staff were very pleasant, but I was worried at the amount of mistakes that were being made. At the start of her week in the ward, she was told more than once that she was going to have a proceedure which meant she could not eat, but no food was ordered for after the proceedure. She was then told that her procedure had been postponed, so she was left with no food apart from a lucky dip sandwich that the nurses managed to acquire. This happened twice over three days, meaning that she did not get to eat much for those three days.

Once able to eat, she ordered a cold meat salad, which she found to be inedible as it was not 'prepared' and was large chunks of salad - not sliced - and the cold meat was a thick slice of cold pork that she could not cut through easily.

While I was there, a doctor who saw us, said that her canular neede re-attaching as it had come loose. After 30 mins I asked a nurse if they knew about it and they did not, but got to work to rectify it.

She was offered Paracetamol even though she had been told previously not to take Paracetamol as she was suffering with a liver complaint. The nurse said she was recorded as to take Paracetamol 4 times a day if necessary. She refused it saying that she thought she was not allowed Paracetamol.

On requiring an anti-biotic drip, the bag of solution was initially hung from the curtain rail by her bed rather that a proper hanger.

On enquiring of her progress after a procedure, we were told that her notes had not been updated with the relevant info, as they had not been in the correct place so we were unable to find out about her condition.

When she was discharged, the medication that she had brought in for high blood pressure and was taken away from her at the time could not be found - so she was discharged without her meds. After several frustrating phone calls to the hospital, the next day, her medicine was magically found and so we had to make a trip to go and retrieve them.

Overall, her experience was one of disbelief as to how many little mistakes were being made, all of the staff were pleasant and helpful, it just seemed that they were slightly 'out of control' .