I'm sorry to say my mum's experiences when in hospital were exactly as
@Dimpsy has described. 3 different hospitals, all the same - one somewhat worse than the other 2 though I believe that one is now in 'special measures'.
I never saw the nurses doing anything pro-active. One time I visited and mum was lying in - literally - a deep puddle of urine. Even her pillow was wet with it and the back of her hair. At that time she was on a 6 bed side ward with a nurse sitting in the corner! I immediately alerted the nurse (who was doing nothing) and I'm afraid she did everything she could to get out of doing anything about it. She tried to get me to assist saying, 'It's YOUR mum!' but I told her it was HER job, not mine and that I didn't have that sort of relationship with my mother. I walked out into the corridor because I wanted to find a doctor. Not possible of course. The cluster of nurses at the nurses station outside had no clue about my mother, what she was in for, what was supposed to be happening - not a scooby.
Mum had gone into the hospital following a fall. I knew she had dementia but everyone else was in denial ('she's just getting a bit old') so she was undiagnosed. She'd been living independently till then and was 'OK' but when I saw her in the hospital she was completely gone - delerious and with a huge change in her cognition.
At that point, she needed a proper assessment but of course that didn't happen. No one was interested in how she was before and how she was now. She only got a second scan because I ranted at the consultant when I eventually found one. They found a chronic sub-dural haematoma. In the following week this grew then they panicked and moved her to another hospital with a neurology department. The consultant had insisted she was fine and no further scan was needed. And he was horrible to me.
The rest was a complete catalogue of errors. She developed an infection in the head wound so had to go back to theatre. Somewhere along the way her false teeth were lost. Nobody cared. Her clothes were all lost including 2 complete outfits with shoes and coat I'd taken in later. Speaking to anyone who knew what was going on was impossible. You never saw the same nurse/doctor twice so had to repeat the whole sorry tale with each new one. I was treated as a troublemaker because I complained about lack of care. On the neuro ward they would phone me up several times a day because mum was ranting and banging on the door to get out. She would scream at me down the phone and wouldn't listen to anything I said, so all a bit pointless - I don't know what they thought I could do.
Sorry for this rant - most of this happened 3 years ago but I was completely disgusted with the lack of basic care and communication between staff. (Don't get me started on the even worse communication between hospital staff and social services when it came to getting her out.) I eventually took matters into my own hands and set up a move to a CH near me. I met her there from the ambulance. The paras were very apologetic because she'd been 'handed over' to them wearing just a hospital gown with sick down the front, no knickers and just a pair of dirty socks. They'd given her blankets - it was January and freezing.
The system is broken. Individual medical staff are good but you can't help seeing that the way things are run now is not working. And as a result patients are being neglected and/or not getting the care and treatment they should. I wish it was just me but I have to say, I have heard the same story (and worse) from so many people in recent years. Anyone going into hospital takes their chances