elderly in hospital

I find it worrying anniegrannie if the PALS are the only people being listened too. I have occasional contact with our local one and the people are lovely but rather ineffectual.

The hospital managers would be much better to talk to the families of the older people in hospital who are presumably fairly mature themselves and are more likely to have a reasonable take on the dire state of care for the elderly.

My son is currently traing to be a mental health nurse, but has been doing general nursing placements in his first two years, and he has reported giving very hands on care and support with patients on kidney wards and A and E in his last two placements, which he really enjoyed. I wonder how come student nurses get to give such close care to patients but not so much when qualified?

It is so sad anniegrannie that nursing has come to this. It was my chosen career and I loved my job but I could not work in the NHS now. We were taught in the classroom in PTS and we had lectures all the way through training but the greatest knowledge was gained at the patient's bedside whilst watching more senior staff carry out procedures.

Having recently retired from 45 years nursing I can totally and honestly agree with fellow nurses that nursing has steadily gone downhill. since the powers that be thought it was a good idea to train nurses in university, there is no bedside nursing,how can you have observational skills when you sit at a computor to 'manage your patients'. you are allowed to mentor student nurse but they are supernumary and do not handle any patient care. Please don't suggest bringing back Matron,they are managers and nothing else.. I am afraid the days of real nursing have gone.The only people who now are listened to in hospitals are P A L S (patient advise liason service ). I have had a fulfilling career but nursing is not what it used to be and it saddens me greatly

In all fairness Age Cymru did sterling work in Cardiff a couple of weeks ago organising a rally to make public toilets in Wales a legal requirement. I was there with my banner on TV to prove it As a representative of two organisations in which toilets play an important part I've been asked to provide written 'evidence', so don't judge too harshly. Has anyone contacted Age UK for their stance on the subject of elderly in hospital?

Yes, I had a reply from my MP Paul Goggins, to the same effect. I think we are gradually starting to muster strength and Gransnet could prove to be a force to be reckoned with, rather than a benign organisation like AGE UK who don't appear to put enough 'oomph' into the cause, unless someone knows differently?

I've finally sent my MP an email and the gransnet link and in his encouraging letter of support he tells me that he has tabled and Early Day Motion in parliament suggesting the appointment of a Minister ofr Older People and so far 79 MPs have signed it. He says the Governement has refused to take action but Ed Miliband has appointed a Shadow Minister for Care and Older Peole who attends the meetings of the Shadow Cabinet.

Also...thanks Geraldine for your article in the Independent last week which I welcomed so much especially since you made the point very forcibly that old people are loathed and if we treated children in schools like we treat old people in Care homes and Hospitals what an outcry there would be. I heard or read someone saying we need a campaign like Children in Need to heighten awareness, and Elderlyline, like Childline. I'd like us to take to the streets....tomorrow it's outrage about pensions......what about a bit more outrage about pensioners??

Meanwhile I will personally try not to obsess about whether to dye my hair, buy age-defying creams! I'm only 61, but you know, I feel sometimes as if I should apologise for blighting the landscape with my saggy face. it's pernicious as you said Geraldine, this sense that old = ugly so please don't spoil my day having to look at the evidence that youth doesn't last. Actually, lets take great pleasure in terrorising the youth!! Rampage through Boots to upturn all the shelves of anti-ageing creams anyone?? I've just got to make an appointment at hairdressers first for my Christmas Colour tho, so will meet you after that!

I have recently retired [big big thanks to Gransnet who I have found invaluable] Reading through this forum and reading of people's experiences of how elderly people are being treated in hospitals, care homes and services is truly appalling. Surely those people responsible for treating anyone in hospital without respect and care should be named and shamed. We have just returned from caring for my mother in law who had a fall just a day before her 100th birthday. There are of course no books written to prepare you for this very emotional time. What else can be done?

Hi sixtiesgirl and hi there RAF. Glad to see that other people have started harassing their MPs.
Do you all know about the site WritetoThem which is very easy and quick to use.
I have been thinking about why we, the great British public, seem to feel rather powerless these days. Do you think it is an aftermath of thatcherism? I think the babyboomer generation, currently in the process of retiring, could be a force to be reckoned with if we did but realise it.

My elderly sister-in-law went into a local home for a few weeks respite whilst my brother went into hospital for an operation. It was the start of her demise. After falling several times resulting in sprains and finally a broken ankle, she succumed to the trauma of it all and died. Dealing with the multi layered socialwork, medical and careworker staff was an eye opener to the inefficiency of many of them, the same old 'one hand didn't know what the other was doing' scenario. Falls seem to account for a large number of deaths in the elderly whether it be in care homes or hospitals. As with all other in-care horror stories it is time we of the 'healthy' older generation stopped 'talking the talk' and started 'walking the walk'. We have tremendous voting power which I believe isn't utilised to the full. I know there are organisations dealing with elderly issues but the same old grievences seem to trundle on year in year out 'nay, decade in decade out' without change. Will it finally take 'us Grannies' to roll up our sleeves and sort out this mess? I think if we put our minds to it we could do it with one hand tied behind our backs, don't y'all ??

The link has been sent to my MP. My mother is now terrified of going into hospital - reckons it is the "Workhouse for the old, kill them off asap as we are worthless" What sort of society have we got if this is the way going into hospital is viewed.

Have sent this thread to my MP. Just a quick defense for agency nurses. At one home where I did some agency work (now closed) the residents were always pleased to see us as they said that they would get better care. The staff were all local to the area and spent their days nattering in the kitchen. One lady was regularly moved in a hoist from the day room to her room because they could not be bothered to transfer her to a wheelchair. I reported it to the agency, as did several others and eventually they had so many inspections that it closed. I must also add that I worked in many excellent homes where the care and the food was superb.

What about a bit of random hospital visiting-keeping an eye open when visiting a neighbour in hospital- my feeling is that it's usually agency nurses who cost a lot more who are the problem, and let us not forget some old people are bad tempered and crabby not just because they are poorly but because they are like that all the time(not Gransnetters families of course)

And it is coming out into the open now........

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2049917/One-seven-care-homes-failing-elderly-food-water.html

Have composed my response to my MP and forwarded.

Great!
Here's the one I sent to my MP:

www.gransnet.com/forums/am_i_being_unreasonable/1188355-elderly-in-hospital?msgid=24776336#24776336

Dear Paul

Could you please look at this growing thread of stories on Gransnet website. It details harrowing experiences that members have recounted about the way their elderly relatives have been mistreated in hospital. The Gransnet members have decided to contact their MPs as we are all so concerned. We all have our own experiences of witnessing elderly people being neglected and mistreated in hospital. For myself, when I was very ill and unable to assist an elderly woman who was being neglected in the bed next to me, all I could do at the time was tell her relatives she was being starved each time they came along to visit her, and they took action to remove her from the hospital.

Thank you

We seem to have the green light to alert our MPs to this situation. I have emailed mine with this message, If anyone would like to adapt it for their own use, they are very welcome.

"I am a regular user of the website Gransnet, which has a very active forum of older people (Grandads as well as Grans, and no need even to be a Gran or of grandparent age).

One of the threads on the forum has been on the treatment - and often terrible mistreatment - of elderly relations in hospital, and the scant attention that is sometimes paid to relatives' concerns. Some of the posters were once in the nursing profession themselves, and are horrified at the drop in standards of care. Money is not the answer. The root of the problem is lack of empathy with the old and sick, beginning at the top of the chain of command and reaching to all levels.

www.gransnet.com/forums/am_i_being_unreasonable/1188355-elderly-in-hospital

Can I draw your attention to the stories told on this thread, and hope that you will do your best to see that they do not have to be told again, but that action is taken to make sure they are not repeated?"

I wasn't offended by you Happynana as I know you didn't criticise relatives etc. I was replying to a specific post by someone else,but I'm sorry if I didn't make that as clear as I would have liked. The perils of online forums....so many posts and so much emotion swirling around with this particular one. There is good practice in some hospitals and the hope has to be that the evidence of this good practice is highlighted because if one hospital can do it then all hospitals can do it. It doesn't cost money for one individual to treat another with dignity and respect. That's my mantra.

Thankyou to Geraldine at Gransnet for her reply:

Dear Carol,

Many thanks for getting in touch. By all means, do send the link to your MP. The stories are very powerful and they're anonymous, so we don't need anyone's permission; no one will be exposed. And those who have posted on the thread seem pretty keen to have the abuses come to light.

best wishes

Geraldine
GNHQ

I am sending the link now to my MP Paul Goggins and hope it's one of many from us Gransnetters x

Make the hospital culpable for the deaths of elderly when it could have been prevented.
I too trained in the 60s and would have been mortified to see my patients in this kind of distress.
I strongly believe that sick animals get more care and consideration than humans and that is reprehensible.
My thoughts are with you RAF

I agree with Glammanana Nobody knows who we are and there are many of us who will be I am sure happy to be named if names are needed.

Good morning - I have asked Gransnet for some guidance, considering the very personal stories that are on here.

Lets get that done Carol

Could we have some guidance from Gransnet, please? I would be happy to print off the whole thread and forward to my MP if permission was given by relevant people.

MPs have email, you could just send the link, rather than the reams of paper, which I suspect might get 'filed'? :-)