Jill Coles’ dad Ronald King had already been suffering from blood cancer, but things took a turn for the worse when he suffered a nasty fall.
Ronald first went to A&E on April 4, 2024, and went to Darent Valley Hospital with what they would later discover was a fractured back.
However, Jill claims that after his first visit he was turned away without the problem being found.
Ronald then went in and out of hospital with other health issues, such as coughing up blood, and eventually staff discovered his fractured back.
Jill said: “Despite him having a fractured back he was pulled and pushed around in agony and they used to say ‘no he hasn’t got a fractured back’ and we would say ‘he has, look at his notes.’
“Then they would say ‘oh we didn’t know’ – are you not reading his notes?
“Look what you are doing to do my dad.”
Ronald was blind, and so Jill explained that he was given a red tray with his food which was intended to signal to hospital staff that he needed assistance when eating in hospital.
He also wore a lanyard to signal his disability to hospital staff.
Despite this, Jill claims she could hear him before she saw him when she reached the ward as she could hear her dad screaming for help.
Jill claims that there were many occasions that his food and water was not there for him, or if it was that it was out of his reach.
The family even made signs for hospital staff to read to make it clear that Ronald needed their help.
Darent Valley Hospital has told the News Shopper that an investigation has been initiated and that all complaints are taken seriously.
It added that it is committed to “providing the highest standard of care” to all patients.
Jill added: “I’ve got pictures of him in awful positions, uncomfortable, no clothes, no pyjamas, they did not care for him.
“It’s my mission to get it out there.
“I’m not saying they killed him, he was a poorly man, but he wasn’t like that before he went in there.
“Every time we went there, it wasn’t just him it was other people on the ward, their water jugs were empty and they were screaming for help.
“They were being ignored.
“He was left in a soiled bed on multiple occasions and left to wet himself, left alone in the toilet, blind.
“We used to say ‘you can’t leave him’ and I could hear him before I got on the ward screaming somebody help me and when I got to the ward the nurses would be standing there doing nothing.”
Jill claims that when she tried to implore the nurses to help her dad when he called, they told her “he always does that”.
At the time, Jill contacted the CQC who made an emergency safeguarding referral, but Jill claims this this did not change anything.
According to Jill, at one point hospital staff called security to report her and her sister as they were angry that their dad had not been fed for four days.
He was moved around a variety of different wards during his time in hospital until, eventually, Darent Valley Hospital told the family that there was nothing more they could do for Ronald, and he was discharged to Greenwich and Bexley Community Hospice.
By that point though, Jill felt her dad had “given up”.
She said: “He didn’t care, he just wanted to die.
“He said ‘all I want to do is go home or die’ because they just weren’t looking after him.
“He was just left in a wet nappy. He didn’t deserve that, no one deserves that.
“It was just awful what they did to him, knowing that he was blind and he had a fractured back and leaving him in the toilet.
“My sister used to go up there and find him in the toilet on his own screaming for help and she’d have to go in there and wipe his bum.
“He doesn’t want his daughters to wipe his bum for him he was dignified he wasn’t that sort of man that wanted his bum wiped by his daughters.”
Ronald was in the hospice for two days before passing away on July 6, 2024.
Jill is “grateful” to the hospice for giving her dad “some care and compassion” in his final days.
The full statement from Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust said: “We are aware of the concerns raised by Ms. Coles regarding the care her late father received at Darent Valley Hospital.
“Ms. Coles registered her complaint with the Trust on 31 July 2024.
“In accordance with the NHS complaints process, we have acknowledged her complaint and initiated an investigation.
“Ms. Coles was informed of this by telephone yesterday, and a letter has also been sent to her confirming that the investigation is underway.
“As the investigation is still ongoing, we are unable to comment further on the specifics of the case at this time.
“At Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust, we are committed to providing the highest standard of care to all our patients.
“We take all complaints seriously and will ensure that this matter is fully investigated in line with our protocols.
“As the investigation progresses, we will remain in close communication with Ms. Coles and will address all concerns comprehensively.”
