My elderly mum 76 was very ill so I made an emergency GP appointment for my mother. I suspected she had pneumonia she was finding it difficult to breath, had immense aches and pains she was vomiting throughout the day. She was unable to stand up herself and was on the verge on collapsing. She had visibly got worse and worse as the day professed. Me and my brother struggled to get our mother into the car to get to the GP. My mother was in immense pain it was terrible. She was made to wait in the GP's waiting area for at least 20mins in great pain and her lungs were tightening up and restricted her breathing (no body from the GP's office took any notice of the state my mum was in). We were repeatedly told 'your will be next soon'...we struggled to get our mother to get up off her chair she had to be supported by me and my brother on each side getting her out of the house and into the car and from the GP car park inside the surgery. Eventually it was our turn and me and my brother held our elderly mother on each side and struggled to gather off the chair and to walk the distance along the corridor into the GP's room. Once inside the GP room.. .the GP just looked with a blank expression at my mum. ..my mother was struggling to breath and tell him she was struggling to breath and had a terrible burning sensation in her chest and terrible pain in her head as well as chest. Then GP checked my mums temp and heart rate and said my mums heart rate was a little high. The GP told my mum 'I'll give you antibiotics and go home and rest you should be ok.. .the antibiotics will take 24hrs to start working and if she gets worse you can call the ambulance' I turned around and said I think my mums got pnemonia and he said 'what makes you say that?'. ..I replied 'She's 76 she's been coughing for last 4 weeks but today she is on verge of collapsing finding it hard to breath..' then the DR used the stethoscope to check my mums lung and said 'She's got Pneumonia in the right lung' 'I suggest she goes home takes her antibiotics and rests'...I replied 'no I want her to go to hospital look at her state...' The GP gave us a letter and told us to go to the hospital with the letter to the 'Medical Assessment Unit 4'.. . I asked the GP can you please call the ambulance the GP turned around and said to me 'the ambulance I just like a taxi all they will do is take her to the hospital...you can take her in your car' I was left gobsmacked at his response...we struggled to get our mum out of the surgery not the car. At the hospital I went to main reception whilst the car was parked outside the main reception to the reception. There were 4 porters sat behind reception and I asked 'I need a wheel chair fort elderly mum, she's got pneumonia' The porter turned around (with 3 other porters sat around him) and told me 'go find the wheelchair yourself we have to do the same as you and look for a wheel chair. ..go find one somewhere in the hospital' I replied 'its your job to find a wheelchair, there's 4 of you sat in reception your porters' he looked at me and then instructed one if the porters to find a wheel chair. I needed the wheel chair to get my mum into the hospital from the car park. I turned around and saw my brother bringing in my mum into the reception, just as the porter was bro moving the wheel chair' We then went to the medical assessment 4 gave paperwork to a girl behind the counter who to is to wait in the ward on a chair instead of a bed. As 'no beds were available' we waited close to 2hrs my mum was in agony day on the chair. I went back to medical unit assessment reception told them my mums in agony with pneumonia she needs a bed asap. I was told again to wait. I saw a consultant walking towards me and told him 'my mums 76 she needs a bed asap'. He replied 'I'll go speak to someone for you' Eventually a health care worker came over snd said 'your GP sent you to the wrong ward. ..he should have sent you to ward 3 which is for elderly people'. I told my superior to send your mum to A&E and she over rode my decision, we are sending your mum to another ward and will find a bed for her' She got a wheelchair and took my mum to the other ward. ..where she was eventually a consultant came examined her too her blood pressure, heart rate and bloods and examined her chest. ..she said your mums got pneumonia I'll get her onto a bed asap. Eventually my mum was placed on the bed still in agony with her burning chest and difficulty in breathing, later she was placed on a drip for fluids as she look pale and very dehydrated. The next day I was told they had also given her antibiotics and the oxygen mask to loosen her lungs. I was told the bloods would be sent and looked at and a chest X-ray would be done the same night to determine what damaged if any happened to the lungs etc and the course of treatment. The next day I rang the hospital to enquire about my ma and was told 'she has a virul infection' when I got to the hospital the healthcare nurse dealing with my mum said 'it's not pneumonia but a viral infection.. .' I replied 'Our GP confirmed it as pneumonia' She replied 'it's a viral infection like people get it's common...' She said said we are waiting for her xrays which have been taken this morning (I was told the xrays would be taken last night!) She tells me 'your mums asking to go home, she's been walking independent...she'll be home today' I went to my mum and told her this is what the nurse is saying my mom said 'I never said I want to go home, why they sending me home I'm in agony. The nurse helped me get out of bed and helped me to the toilet' This healthcare worker kept denying my mum had pneumonia and it was just s viral infection. The way she came across was that she wanted my mom of of bed even though she was unconscious and in pain on the bed with pneumonia. They put the oxygen mask on her face again. Later in the evening I went back and the same healthcare nurse told me 'she's going home she had no pneumonia she's needs rest and to take her medicine at home. We asked for a wheel chair as my mom was not strong enough to walk ...the ward had become empty of healthcare workers who had disappeared too I asked a consultant who was passing through we need a wheelchair as my mum is being discharged. He rang the porters downstairs to ask for a wheel chair to be brought up. We waited 20 mins and nothing do I faked a nurse on the ward I need a wheelchair, she told me 'go to reception and find one yourself' I waited close to 30 mins and nothing do I faked another nurse who asked another nurse. My mom was sat on the bed still in agony. .. I went down to reception and the told the guy at reception 'I've been waiting for a wheelchair for over 40 mins'. He just looks at me and goes 'there's one behind you use that' I took the wheelchair to the ward gotynmum into it and took her home, The discharge letter confirms my mum has 'community related pneumonia' and the xrays showed some damaged or cackles in the lungs etc - complete opposite to what the healthcare assistant who was keen on my mum to leave kept sAying 'it's just a viral infection' My mum is 76 with pneumonia she's been sent home with medicines and antibiotics. She's ill and should never have been sent home until the pneumonia was cleared. What can I do to get justice with the horrendous way my mum has been treated and what action against the GP can I take and against the hospital? My mums health is important and I want justice even if it means taking the legal route and going to solicitors who deal in medical cases like these? Now everyone on the household is ill and coughing - my elderly father is coughing very badly and wheezing sometimes. The hospital and GP are to blame, why was my mum discharged if she at 76 still has pneumonia?

I signed up for Scottish Power's Home Comfort service to provide peace of mind regarding my boiler. I called them a month ago, on their emergency number provided by them, as I have problems with my hot water. They gave me an appointment for Jan 4th 2014, between 8.00-13.00. By the time noon came and went I was getting anxious as no sign of the engineer. I called them and they confirmed that I was scheduled for an engineer to come to my house. No-one arrived. I called them again and was told that my appointment had been rescheduled the day before, but they could not tell me why it was rescheduled nor by whom nor when the new date was supposed to be. I was then referred to customer services, who also could not enlighten me as to why a unilateral decision to reschedule my appointment was taken and why I was not informed. I had to take time off work to wait for their engineer, and now I have to take another morning off for the next appointment. Can i pursue any compensation?

This is my first post. So, greetings to all. This “thing” is a first for me but now its happened imfairly convinced that it’s a practice used all too much in the recruitmentindustry. Ill try to be brief. I recently started a new job. Im employed thru a recruitmentagency, to workfor their client in a warehouse role for £6.59p/h. The jobs’ fine. Nice people,my line manager is really friendly and helpful and all is good. During my registration/interview,with the agency ,I was told among other things that plenty of overtime wasavailable there. ( I should of asked for more detail in hindsight. Instead I justsaid great). And why not. Overtime is how those of us at the low end of the paybracket top up our meagre wages. So one day I asked my line manager at theclient company about doing some overtime to which he said “yes, as much as you want. Standard overtime is paid at time and a halfand Sundays are double time” Decent enough. So I did some evenings and a full weekend. On payday I expected my wages to be decent but no !! I was only paid the standard rate of £6.59.When I approached the agency I was told that although the client pays overtime at£xxxx we don’t. We pay you overtime at the standard rate !!!!!! I spoke my manager at the client who was completely unawareof this. So all that extra work I did, that extra money went straight in thepockets of the agency. Its disgusting. Theyare basically profiteering and exploiting low paid workerswho are desperately trying to get by and try to do this by working extra hours. Im sureits all perfectly legal but shouldn’t be. If the client is paying extra forovertime then the agency should pass that on to its workers.