Hinchingbrooke Hospital 2019-11-02 Person 1 5 0

My mother was admitted to this ward on a Tuesday.she was accompanied by my brother who lives in The Midlands an I live in London but was on holiday in Yorkshire. My brother returned to visit on the Wednesday and was told she would be sent home the following day . We were not clear of her diagnosis and there were no medical personel to speak to. Because she was to go home Thursday my brother did not go to my mothers home to fetch toiletries or clothing for her and was assured that she would have hospital transport arranged. On Thursday I managed to get through after constantly ringing the ward at 4 o’clock and spoke to a staff nurse who assured me that my mother was being discharged they were arranging transport and they just needed to contact the carers who look after my mother to ensure her care package restarted at home. This turned out to be a lie as it became clear that mum was not being discharged that day even though she was medically fit to go home. She had to spend an additional night in hospital. The next day both my brother and I spent the whole day trying to contact the ward. I contacted her care team who informed me they had not been contacted by the hospital discharge team. My brother managed to speak to discharge team who had not been informed she was fit for discharge the previous day. Then in dispair we contacted PALS. They work tirelessly to try and help they could get no reply from the ward in the end after constant phone calls I managed to get through to be told she was fit for discharge and arrangements were being made. Again not true my brother was told on the only occasion that he got through that they had just spoken to me and not to ring again. I checked with the care team they still had not heard from the discharge team so we’re not prepared to recommence her care package as they did not know if she needed further medications. By this time it was 3 in the afternoon we were on the verge of driving to get her out rather than have her spend all weekend in hospital for no reason other than no one on the ward had contacted the discharge team. PALs in the end got the social worker to walk to the ward to find out what was going on, if the discharge team were contacted and arranging social care and ambulance transport home. PALs and the discharge team were brilliant but this wardits staff and the management of it are shambolic. We had to fight for information and then staff lied about what was going on when you could eventually get through. I believe my mother would have spent the weekend there if we had not fought to get her home. This begs the question what happens to patients with no voice?the hospital complaints procedure is shsmbolic. PALs is great but if you can’t get through the advice line states immediate issues should be addressed by contacting the ward. Fat chance if no one picks the phone up. No consideration is given to keep relatives informed when they do not live locally and have no way of contacting the ward. This all occurred on the week ending Friday 27th September when no ward sister or deputy ward sister could be contacted to resolve this situation by PALs in the hospital let alone us bh phone. PALs tried to tell us that part of problem was staff shortages but then if that was the case that ward should have been shut as it was clearly unfit and unsafe to remain open. This hospital needs to review its immediate complaints procedure because if no one on the ward answers the phone even to internal calls there is no way of resolution. Mum finally got home in late afternoon thanks to social worker PALs and ambulance staff. We still don’t know what her diagnosis was or why she was given the treatment she had.