NHS failures are the tip of the iceburg

The recent coverage about the Staffordshire hospital where dehydrated patients had to drink out of vases of flowers just to get a drink is the sad reality of care in some of our hospitals today. Staff shortages and poor communication between patients, families and staff mean that some patients are left to fend for themselves to survive the NHS.

Mistakes
Three weeks ago my dad suffered from a bad stroke when he was in Majorca. He was taken to hospital where he received fantastic care, before he was flown back to England so that he could recover with his family in the Midlands. Before the air ambulance had even landed, the long line of botch ups which were to cause my father and our family unnecessary anguish had already begun. They changed which ward he was going to sent to at the last minute, and didn't tell anyone. My mum and brother, who were still in Majorca were told he hadn't arrived in England yet for several hours because my dad had been 'lost'. My dad had been sent home so that he could recover with his family, none of which could find out where he was, because their had been no communication between the wards that he had been moved.
My dad had been sent to the acute stroke ward unit. Five nurses, for more than 20 patients who all needed a huge amount of attention. When I travelled down from university to visit him, I found the ward he was in to be dirty with a pungent smell of God knows what as soon I entered the building. Hardly a place to recover from an acute stroke.
My mum arrived home the next day and was shocked at the difference in quality of care from her Spanish experience. She immediately started her campaign to have him moved to a different hospital, or to Intensive Care where he had been in the Spanish hospital.

The trauma of the transfer had set his recovery back, and he was having difficulty swallowing. Despite this, the staff decided he would be up to eating mashed up food for his dinner. That night we got a phone call to tell us that my dad had choked on his food while the nurse was feeding him, but they had managed to sort it out. A few points to note here;

1. Why was he being fed food if he couldn't swallow? He should have been on the feeding tube as before.
2. He was only being fed by a nurse because my mum had insisted on it during her complaints. None of the other patients were being fed.
3. If he had been feeding himself, unsupervised like the other patients, his choking most probably would have been fatal.
4. The phone call to tell about what had happened was again only because my mum had insisted on being told everything. I am not convinced that if this had happened to another patient, who's family who had not been so assertive about the type of care they wanted to receive, then this would have happened.

Despite the revelation that my dad could not swallow without choking, when i went to visit him later that evening, i found that he still was not on a drip and was still expected to swallow water himself.

Inconsistency
He has now been moved to the rehab ward to start his physiotherapy. Although it is in the same hospital the ward is much cleaner and although we are still not wholly satisfied, we are much happier with the care. Why are some wards seemingly neglected? I was in hospital myself some months ago in the North West to have an operation. The two hospitals i spent time in were clean, well staffed, and the care i received was great. Why is there such inconsistency? Health care should not be pot luck, not only depending on where you live, but the simple gamble of which ward bed becomes free which may determine where you go. Even more lucky is that my dad has an army of feisty troops to fight his corner and make sure that we can get the best care we can from the hospital, which sadly needs some serious TLC of its own. Unfortunately some patients are left to fight these battles themselves.