viv38...I hope I can speak for everybody here in AB-land by wishing your Dad a speedy recovery. But my experience this year, with a brother who sustained a serious head injury in February doesn't wholeheartedly concur with your experience unfortunately.
When he was in ITC and the next down ward, he had the best treatment that money could buy. But the trouble started when he made sufficient recovery, to go onto an "ordinary" ward.
All the things that we have been reading about in the media happened to him....drinks put out of his reach, lying in wet nappy pads for hours on end, catheters coming adrift and messing the bed up, etc, etc. We found his Call Button disconnected three times in one week, something the Nursing Staff were not aware of until we brought it to their attention. Much in the way that they weren't aware of the wet bed, or the stinking nappy pads.
His meals were put in front of him and then collected 20 mins later, uneaten, because he lacked the necessary skills to feed himself some days.
The result of this is that as a family we made sure that someone was visiting every day if that was possible, just to make sure that these very basic things were done properly. I am 60 years old and my brother is 44 and I changed plenty of his nappies 40-odd years ago but I honestly didn't think I was still be doing it now. Don't even start me on the MRSA, etc !
He has made sufficient progress to be moved to a Neuro Rehab hospital, where the day to day care is vastly improved, and he is now on the mend, albeit very slowly.
The whole affair has been a very chastening experience for the family and we have learn a lot. The most important lesson we have learn is to get your relative out of hospital ASAP.