I think we need an "I'm absolutely fucking seething" thread for this one but as it doesn't exist i'll put this here.
After several weeks of us trying to persuade my Mother to see a Doctor about a persistant leg problem, it all became too much for her on Friday night and she asked us to call an Ambulance. As it obviously wasn't immediately life threatening i went through the utter nightmare of calling 111. 30 minutes later they sent....An Ambulance. Now i'll say this first, the Paramedics were absolutely outstanding. They spent well over an hour checking her over, giving her pain relief and generally convincing her that we couldn't do any more for her at home and hospital was where she really needs to be, so at 9pm she was on her way in the Ambulance and we had to sit & wait at home due to fucking Covid.
So i went to bed expecting a call in the middle of the night or early next morning however nothing happened. In fact nothing happened all day until i called the Hospital at 7pm on Saturday night and the main Receptionist tracked down which ward she was on and put me though. I got a few details off the Nurse (She was waiting for a CT Scan which would be done today) and the Nurse took my Mobile number. I assumed, somewhat naively that i'd get a call today with an update. You guessed it folks, by 4pm we had heard nothing.
Once again we jumped on the telephonic Merry-Go-Round with myself, both of my Sisters and one of my Nephews calling the ward Number we'd been given. Eventually my Nephew got through to the Nurse's Station and i got some details of how she was. Fortunately the scan shows no fractures or breaks she doesn't need Surgery.
After explaining to the Nurse all the hoops we'd had to jump through and that NOBODY had actually contacted us about her since she was admitted, i was told to call main reception and ask to be put through to the Ward Deck Phone and it would be taken to my Mum so we could talk to her....
You probably know what's coming next......
The phone is constantly in use. We either get bounced back to the switchboard or occasionally to the Nurses Station who just tell us to keep trying. This is 3 of us trying for a good 3 hours. It's totally unacceptable.
Tomorrow morning i'll be contacting the "Patient Experience Team" and firing a fucking Rocket up them. This is not the fault of the Ward Staff, the systems in place for contacting Patients are utterly shambolic.
Our local hospital was quietly run down in the last days of Blair's Government and services moved to a Hospital 12 miles away with a promise of a new, combined "super hospital" in between both areas. It never happened.