to think that someone at the hospital could ring me about my dad ?

[CMOTdibbler]

I know they are busy, I really do, but he was admitted as an emergency last night, and mum rang me to tell me that, but she didn't know what was going on at all - she has significant cognitive problems.

Have rung hospital 4 times, finally managed to get someone - who couldn't tell me anything in particular as he was having a scan with his notes with him - but when I explained about mum she did say 'oh yes, she seemed to think she'd be picking him up, and thats not the case', and said someone would call me when dad came back up.

That was two hours ago, and I'm worried. It's too far to go to just try and see him before I have to get back to pick DS up.

Would it be unreasonable to ring them again ? Maybe after 2 when the staff will all have had lunch ?

YANBU. It's awful waiting for news from the hospital.

Definitely ring again after 2 though. Shift changes mean you'll possibly get someone new. Can you ask them to put it in his notes to keep you informed? They might be assuming that your mum is more on top of things than she actually is.

i would ring again.. it is easy to get sidetracked on a busy ward and to keep thinking 'i will ring this lady in a minute'.. depending on the trusts policy, staff may quite limited as to what they can tell you over the phone (so don't panic unduly if they are cagey)

i would ring now, shift patterns can vary wildly and nurses rarely have a break at what the rest of the world would call lunch time!

hope your dad is doing ok when you finally get some info

Managed to get hold of them - dad has a DVT, being discharged this afternoon, but they thought that he'd come back every day to have heparin injections until his warfarin levels are OK - this is for a not well 74 year old to drive/be driven for half an hour to a large and confusing hospital, when theres a community hospital 5 minutes from them. Gah. When I asked, they did concede that that would work...

Well, at least your Dad has you on the case for him. It sounds like you managed to get some sense into them, though not great that they hadn't thought of anything like that themselves.

Hope he's okay though. I know full well how convoluted and tied up in knots the NHS systems can get.