I spoke to the people at NHS Commissioning who had an all day meeting on October 14 with us and various others. She was meant to call me back with the conclusion late on 14th or early on 15th. No great surprise that she did neither.

Eventually I called them and discussed the issue. I discovered that Zoey has a named Social Worker who was meant to turn up on 14th and didn’t because Social Services decided that Zoey’s urgent case should be allocated to a social worker who was on annual leave until next week!

Next I called the hospital to complain, spoke to the deputy manager and he has agreed to arrange a meeting for me to talk to the consultant on Monday. This consultant has, apparently, said many times his need to meet with the family which is strange as I’d arranged two previous meetings with the man and he didn’t show up.

I’ve also put in a complaint about the lack of care at Berrywood Hospital to the Care Qualities Commission. I should imagine that won’t go any further than filing tray 13 but I have to try. Seems that two years ago on the same ward as Zoey, a patient hanged herself. She was known to have suicidal tendencies and even handed over a belt to staff as she herself was concerned of what she might do. Sadly, when they did handover this bit of information wasn’t passed on or recorded any way. During the next shift she was found dead hanging by her dressing gown chord. The issue was clearly highlighted as one of consistency and communication and the hospital assured the courts they were implementing changes. It seems they have gone back to their old ways.

Zoey has been attacking another patient. One member of staff believes it is because the lady doesn’t know her boundaries and keeps getting too close to Zoey and won’t stop talking. Has that filtered to anyone else? No, of course not! Zoey is now on 24/7 watch to protect the other patient. Take the easy route rather than be there to monitor the situation, learn from the observations and act on them, crisis management at its very worst.

I cannot do anything now until Monday, no one wants to take responsibility on a Friday, not before their weekend. Thankfully, next week remains free (so far) so I should be able to do all the things I need to do.