Blimmin' rude customer service practice.

[Cockney_si]

Yesterday my mum had a fall whilst out shopping, my brother told me this today, he'd got a phone call from the ambulance man that was taking her to hospital.

Today my brother text me to say that she was in hospital and the operation went well. Hospital not allowed to say over the phone what the operation was.

Number from the hospital was witheld, no details of what hospital she was in or what ward, just in which town it was in.

I phoned earlier, when said I was her son the woman in a said, well I phoned her son earllier ane he said he couldn't visit.

Errr, Yeah, I'm her other son, my brother has no transport and don't know where the hospital is or what ward my mum is on.

Eventually I left my mobile number and the nurse on the ward phoned me and let me speak to my mum, who'd broken her hip and had to have it pinned.

Apparently it is not common practice to have more than one son.

[boxtops]

DT, that gets even more complicated, as you know families from other cultures don't even share the same surnames.....

[DTCwordfan]

true - even Iceland with all its sons and dottirs...........

[mojay]

I have noticed that while some families are restricted to 2 visitors there are some patients that have 10/12 for some reason

[Cockney_si]

well anyway, my mum is now in a hospital, in some town I've never been to, miles away. They did have to check with her that I was her other son.

If they had given all the information in the first place to my brother I wouldn't have worried so much.

The trouble is, if it had been my son /daughter hurt and taken to hospital, the lack of information supplied in the first place could have meant I had nothing to go on and me wondering where the flippin' heck in the country that they were.

[gness]

Now you have found her Cockney,hang on to her. Twice when OH was moved I was taken to the wrong husband. Did weigh them up before saying anything though.
Is she far from you? Will visits be easy?

[joko]

was she actually rude to you? was she snotty or bolshy?
or did she just did her job and question who you are before giving you confidential information?
presumably your mother did not give them your number or tell them you exist...that is not her fault.

you havent actually explained what happened - because merely not being instantly told everything you wanted to know immediately does not constitute rudeness.

she also cannot be held responsible for people around her talking and laughing - she did ask them to be quiet... what more did you expect her to do?

had she not asked them to or even joined in with them - that would have been rude

[Cockney_si]

She's got to stay in hospital for a week, they are going to try and get her to walk a little tomorrow.
It's a 2 hour round trip to the hospital that she is in.
They have told her that they may move her to a closer hospital in the week, I just hope that they give all the details if they do.

[Cockney_si]

The woman's tone of voice sounded like she was telling me off for pretending to be who I said I was, she seemed to want to dismiss me there and then until I explained that I was the other son.

My mum had said to the woman to phone my brother and let him know where she was and what she had done so that he could let me know too.

I can understand that the patient confidentiality bit, but to phone someone on a withheld number and not leave a phone number in case we had to call back or even what ward she was on or the address of the hospital.

[Maydup]

I wish your Mum a speedy recovery Cockney_si.

If your brother spoke to them when they phoned, I suggest it would be up to him to get all the necessary information such as ward name and hospital address.

But if the message was left on his phone then I think they did the correct thing to just leave basic information until someone could phone them back. even then they are fairly cautious about giving info over the phone as anyone can ring up and ask about random people. At least they are looking after her well and protecting her from strangers which must be a comfort to you really.

[Cockney_si]

They spoke to him directly on the phone, not sure why they didn't leave a contact number or even say what ward she was in.

I shall see what happens in a weeks time when she's ready to go back home again.

[bednobs]

didn't he ask them?