"Communication is not up to the standard expected"

My wife was recently admitted to A&E at 22:00. My opinions are not a reflection on the staff, who were very attentive and caring, but on the system failure that I feel we experienced within NHS Grampian.

It was decided that my wife should be transferred to Ward 101 for further investigation and when I phoned the next day in the morning, I was told that the Ward was awaiting an assessment by Ward 109. I visited my wife at 1100 hrs and personally told the same story. Later that afternoon a phone call was made to ward 101 and we were informed that a cardiologist was expected within the next 5 minutes.

At 1830 hrs I phoned the Ward again and was told that an assessment was being made at that moment and the Ward would phone me back. Nothing happened. Almost two hours later, after 20 minutes of trying to access the Ward by phone, I was told that they were still waiting for a cardiologist and my wife was settling down for another night in Ward 101.

At 09:00 hrs the next day I was told that a visit from the cardiologist should hopefully happen sometime in the morning. I attended the Ward at 1530 just in time to meet the cardiologist. My problem is that I was given various misleading statements about the assessment and my wife, and family, were left in limbo. NHS Grampian has a duty of care to both the patient and family, especially if the patient is vulnerable, and it appears in this case NHS Grampian has failed.

I have two other issues:

1 At the outset I was informed that one person could visit for one hour. I don't have a problem with that but it transpires that the official guidance is one named person for one hour per day. I refer you to the official visitor guidance on your website which merely refers to one person. Clearly spelling out the official guidance would have alleviated the stress that the family had in canceling intended visits.

2 Phone communication is not up to the standard expected. If you go through the main switchboard you are patched to a phone which constantly rings but is never answered. I tried this method 5/6 times, all to no avail. I can only assume that it is locked away in some cupboard. It may be worthwhile investigating the line used by the switchboard. I should say that the operators are so efficient that I feel they have become inefficient - as soon as they hear the ward number requested they make the patch. There is no opportunity to inform the operator that you can't receive an answer from the ward.

I reiterate - I have no complaints about the staff but the system is creaking.