NHS care ... what's that then?

I got to read some rather worrying posts on Ash's blog over the last few days. Nan has been in hospital since just before we left for Australia. She had what Em thinks is a pleural effusion which has caused a build up of fluid on her right lung. This has obviously caused a fair bit of pain and lots of troubles with her breathing which she needed to get looked at. They put in a drain a few days after we saw her and by all accounts it has been draining pretty much constantly since it was put in. This means that the cause of the problem is still there and causing it to continually refil, a bit like taking the plug out of a bath, but leaving the tap running. Without finding a way to turn off the tap, it will just keep draining, and if the plug is put back in (the drain taken out) then it will cause the build up of fluid once again and the pain and breathing difficulties to reappear. This is fair enough, but the fact that it has been over 3 weeks now makes me really worried about her.
I've also been informed that the standard of care is really low in her ward. The nurses don't seem to give a stuff about Nan, they sound like they are more worried about the state of their paperwork than the state of the patients. Nan is of the generation that went through the war and always gets on with things and tries not to make a fuss if things aren't as they want them. This puts her at a great risk when the nurses don't do a decent job as she won't make a noise and complain. Nan has always had a problem with her feet swelling if she stays in a chair with her legs down, and what does mum keep finding?? The nurses don't put her feet on anything so her legs keep swelling. Nan doesn't help by not complaining, but it shouldn't be up to her to complain to get the treatment she deserves.
Now I hear that Nan has got a bedsore!! Mum wouldn't have been caught dead letting one of her patients get a red patch on their skin let alone a bedsore when she was nursing, so my big question is what has happened to the nursing hierarchy that used to exist in the NHS? Where are the Sisters who would give the younger nurses hell if they didn't do their job correctly? And why, when they are obviously being negligent in their care, is there nobody questioning why this is occurring. I suppose worst of all is, why doesn't anyone give a shit about this happening?
If Nan and Gang had been really wealthy and could have been able to afford private healthcare without thinking about it, I know for a fact that she'd be in a much better state of health than she is now that the NHS have been allowed to do their worst.
I hope that the threat of lawyers which I believe is the next step, will improve their care towards her. If this doesn't work then I really hope mum and dad look carefully at how much private health care will cost. She's been in the hospital for 3 weeks and by all accounts is looking grey, thin, hardly eating or drinking and is very difficult to hear when she talks. I keep thinking if that's what they do to her in 3 weeks, how bad will it be in another 3?
And after these 3 weeks of hell, they still don't know what is causing it. I told mum two weeks ago that both Em and Iz have had patients with all the same symptoms as nan and that it was all due to underlying heart failure, treatment of which resolved the lung problems. I know that this is a diagnosis made by two juniors on the other side of the planet, but at least they seem to be on to things a bit quicker than the NHS. I hear that the cardiologist has now at least seen her - but that's after two and a half weeks in there!
I really hope that they find a cause soon because given the level of nursing care at Southport Hospital, it may be too late by the time they do get around to diagnosing her.