“Finally people are waking up to the very poor treatment at treliske.
We fought them for three and a half years,for the grossly negliengent I received there and won.
But the grossly negliegent surgeon is still practising there,and he just might operate on you to-morrow.
Acording to the GMC he has done no wrong,some charity for helping patients.
As long as the doctor`s pay their wages they will condone anything.
Even after a leading surgeon who teaches,this operation and even devises the tools,was clearly condeming of the treatment I had received,and wanted his day in court to prove it.The hospital shouldered the blame and not the so called consultant.
Key hole surguery is great untill it goes wrong,and the consultant cant recognise the problem and patient has to re-admitt another twice with life threating conditions.
Again un-diagnosed.
If my husband had not done research on the internet and phoned a family member who is a retired GP I would now be dead.
Through negliegence.
We would like some contact off you to try to prevent this happening again,if it has not already done so.
Jw.”

“In October 2006 my husband was diagnosed with bowel cancer and underwent 10 months of Chemotherapy at the Sunrise Centre. We knew from the start that it was so far developed only a miracle would cure him. Nevertheless the staff at Sunrise were fantastic.
In May 2007, as the result of months of treatment, his leg muscles had become weakened to the point that he fell down our stairs and broke 3 vertebrae in his neck. This resulted in 3 weeks in Treliske hospital, firstly in A & E where I pleaded with the doctor to give him pain relief; a doctor who barely gave him a second look. Secondly, on the Orthopaedic ward, where great care was taken with his broken neck, but his cancer seemingly forgotten about. I stayed day and night for those 3 weeks, washing him gently, unlike the care assistants, (did they not know that his swollen tummy was due to a liver full of secondary tumours?), asking for medication nightly to ease his constipation, when he was left for 9 days without a bowel movement. Yes, for a man with bowel cancer! He was then moved to the 'heart' ward, as his heart rate increased and after scans and tests he went to the Endocrinology ward with failing adrenal glands, where attention was paid to the dangerous levels of salts in his blood, but not his cancer directly, nor his broken neck. We were told that this condition could be fatal. I was asked to leave him while they changed his bedding and whilst moving him back up the bed, he hit his head on the bedhead, with his full weight behind him! With a broken neck!
Within days he was pleading with me to take him home. He knew he was dying and wanted to die peacefully at home. He was taken by ambulance and reached home, an hour away, while I waited a further 2 hours for his medication!
He died 2 weeks later at home at the age of 47.

We wrote to the Royal College of Nursing, and had their sympathies. We also wrote to the P.C.T, but they weren't listening to what we were saying. They were too busy justifying the actions of their staff. I had kept a daily diary, with names of staff and actions taken, praising them where praise was due, and highlighting the problems.
'Where was the joined up thinking?'
The 3 seperate wards looked after their own speciality and ignored the root cause of my husbands illness. The cancer.
No one told Oncology where he had been moved to and therefore he had little, if any palliative care. My concerns were not listened to, and as a result I stayed, because I felt I couldn't trust them to look after him properly. He was bedbound and in no fit state to do anything about it himself. Complaining won't bring him back, but we didn't want this to happen to anyone else.
Please P.C.T, communicate with each other; join up the thinking, and look at the whole person, not just specifics.”

“This case is very sad, but it importantly highlights some of the problems within Truro hospital. I went into hospital in July to have an operation on my hip, and although many of the staff there were very good, they were obviously understaffed and over worked. There were many occasions where many of the people on my ward were neglected, and often left to get on with it. Often these experiances were humiliating for the person involved. When talking to the people on my ward many just felt like a number taking up a bed.
I was sent away from the hospital with only a few of the items which I needed to be able to cope at home. The after care service that I recieved was poor. Information which was supposed to have been passed on was not, and if it was, it was often confused, leading to delays in recovery time. During the whole of the experience I felt like a statistic. I was shocked at the incompetance and lack of communication often displayed. I really believe that these failings should be taken seriously and investigated further.”

“I find this story astonishing - my own elderly mother and many of my friends, some with terminal illnesses sadly, have all had excellent professional and sympathetic treatment at West Cornwall Hospital. (Penzance).
I'm very sorry for those who have had a bad experience at either this hospital or Truro. I can only say it's not my experience and difficult to believe it could be the same staff.”

“Sadly I have to agree with the article. My mother fell and and hurt her arm a year or so back. She was in agony but was sent home being told it was arthritis. It tool two further visits over the next weeks till they admitted it was broken. The bone was so badly damaged it needed to be pinned. The consultant had not looked at te Xray and had assumed old lady=arthritis, it was shocking.”