Hospital and help

Today's Daily Mail has a story about a dying woman screaming in pain and nobody came to help. A patient on the same ward tried to comfort her and was in court.

My father was dying in Watford General. When I realised his tongue had swollen due to dehydration so he could not speak or eat or drink, I wanted a doctor to put him on a drip.

The nurse on duty phoned the on duty doctor twice. The doctor refused to come to the ward because she could not over-ride the consultant. It was a Friday night and the consultant probably would not be back until Monday.

Shortly afterwards my father died. So the doctor turned up to sign the death certificate, for which she gets paid.

Nobody in hospital with the authority to give drugs or make a decision is around all weekend and most days until your consultant calls.

The consultant is a specialist in one part of the body. So if you are under a consultant for a lung problem you could have another problem and nobody will deal with it.