The greatest punishment is to send a vulnerable person hundreds of miles away from home and family and for contact to be virtually severed as we have experienced under Cygnet Appletree.

I used to visit Elizabeth every week and my journey time took three hours in total but now it would take me 7 hours and require an overnight stay which is expensive if you visit regularly.

To send someone away hundreds of miles like this is cruel and even more cruel to take the phone away that we as a family pay for under contract.

We used to correspond by text messaging via WhatsApp but the last time Elizabeth picked up her message was on 28 June 2023.

When you phone Cygnet Appletree you get put through to a succession of people. There was supposed to be a meeting about contact following a call that came out of the blue by the Responsible Clinician of Pippin Ward. Nothing has changed because still the WhatsApp messages were last viewed on 28 June 2023.

Day before yesterday I had a voicemail message, the first message I have ever had from my daughter stating she was not doing well that day and was clearly struggling. I immediately phoned the ward and as usual got put through to several people ending up speaking to the ward manager, Keeley who said that Elizabeth did have her phone so I said in that case how comes her WhatsApp messages had not been picked up since 28 June? I asked for the phone to be given back to Elizabeth but this was not done. It was then admitted that the phone was charging. We pay a monthly contract on that phone.

Today I spoke to the ward secretary as she had contacted me as Cygnet Appletree want the private scan results but when I asked for the email address to send these to she asked me to send them to her email address. I did not have a pen handy at the time so I asked her to write to me so I had her email address. Just looked and no email received.

There are no plans as yet to visit and virtually next to nothing in contact with my daughter with former hospital having involvement. A former NHS hospital is responsible for sending my daughter far away namely Ash Villa. When this is done absolutely no consideration is made towards the carer and no assistance with any costs yet there is an abundance of funding towards a very expensive facility namely Cygnet Appletree where Elizabeth is now held and is clearly missing home, asking about her cat and when I will visit next. It would appear that smoking is allowed at this private hospital as Elizabeth has said she has started smoking again.

The Responsible Clinician actually sounded quite nice when he phoned me and promised contact would be reviewed but really nothing has changed. If things had changed then she would have her phone back and be able to pick up her messages.