"Where’s my father?"

My father is in his 70s and suffered a stroke. After a visit to Resus, he was sent to Ward 62. The vascular registrar was phenomenal and advised my father would have surgery the following day. 

The nurse advised the plan was to move him to Ward 11b at 8am and they would contact me when he left and confirm the the scheduled for surgery.

From 8:20-9:30 I called both numbers 12 times and it was constantly engaged so I called the switchboard and asked to be transferred to Ward 11b (here we go…). 

After confirming that my father was not on their list they advised that they were ENT and it happened all the time but I should be speaking to Ward 11c.

Ward 11c advised that they (and ward 11d) had no beds available and he would not be coming there, so to speak to Ward 62 and confirm.

Back to Ward 62(and 30 more minutes of engaged tones) where I finally spoke to someone who said he was scheduled to go to theatre late morning but he was definitely going to ward 11b.

Ward 11b stuck to their guns and said the only person who could help was Ward62.

Ward 62 was back to engaged tones. 

My sister then called to confirm she had been texted by our father at 7am to confirm he had been scheduled for a 9am operation. 

Back to Ward 62,  who said Ward 11b was the only one who could help (and the nurse seemed pretty frustrated I had called again.

At this point I asked to speak to someone about this as I needed to know where my father was and when his operation was.

Ward62 put someone else on the phone who insisted it had to be one of the wards on the 11th floor. (Perhaps I should wander about shouting for him?.

Then called ward 11c who seemed most helpful and finally spoke to Fiona. What a star! She asked me to hold and she called Ward 62 and Ward 11b and after 15 mins came back to me with the answer. Ward 11A! She had also spoken to them and confirmed that they were expecting him.

With the exception of the Vascular registrar and Fiona from Ward 11c, the rest were shocking.

Ward 62: why wasn’t I called regarding my dad’s operation time or when he went to theatre? (I am the primary contact and sole Power of Attorney.) How could you lose him? The attitude from the staff in the phone was shocking. They seemed to have no interest in helping me, and much more interested in passing me off to Ward 11b. Ward 11B: held the same opinion as Ward 62 but in the opposite direction.