Healthcare - Nocare

Elderly people - really elderly - come from a stoic generation who don't want to be a bother. It isn't possible to over-ride their feelings and complain on their behalf, call paramedics etc because they would feel embarrassed and upset and all sorts and it would make a bad situation worse. Which is precisely why the NHS gets away with their rotten service.

I have an elderly aunt who had trigeminal neuralgia; into the local elderly 'care' hospital she went and dosed up on diamorphine. We lived 100 miles away. I had a phone call, she was at home!!!! She was hallucinating, had walked off the ward, onto a bus - in her hospital clothes with slippers - had no money for fare, got off and crossed a dual carriageway to her home and thankfully telephoned me.

I rang the hospital who had not, to that point missed her, and then sent someone out to take her back. When I complained, I was told that only she could make a complaint and they could not discuss her with me because of the Data Protection Act! Voila!

Nanban That is disgusting, couldn't you just call an ambulance for her?

THE NHS SHOULD BE ACCOUNTABLE WHEN CARING FOR THE ELDERLY I ONCE WORKED ON WARD FOR DEMENTIA PATIENTS WHERE THEY WERE LOCKED IN TWO ROOMS FOR 24 HOURS WITH ONLY TWO TOILETS WHEN COMPLAING TO THE MANAGER I WAS TOLD THAT I COULD LIKE IT OR LEAVE STRUGGLED ON FOR FEW MONTHS BUT WA SBULLIED FROM THE TIME I GOT IN IN THE MORNING TILL I WENT HOME

Have they not got an alarm?
I have and if I had been left in a situation like that then I would have soon pressed it and had the paramedics in.
They in turn would have got on to the hospital concerned and things would start moving from there.
Many folks have a lifeline alarm that they either have from Age Concern or their own local council. It does have to be paid for BUT it has saved my life at least 6 times since I first started with Epilepsy when I had turned 80 years of age. Worth considering if they have not got one already and IF they have one and things get too much then I suggest they press it to get help.

The age old battle between the NHS and Social Care about who is responsible continues. No doubt someone somewhere (the hospital?) has said the peg feeding can be done by 'any qualified practitioner' and the agency have said they have such practitioners. The agency probably got the work in the area by submitting the cheapest tender.
I once had a stand off with a consultant after we were asked to put services in for an 86 year old woman, with no relatives who the hospital decided to send home at 3pm on afternoon, 4 days after a double mastectomy, because they needed her bed. I was able to persuade the hospital to continue to care for her, so the social care assessment process could take place.
Co-ordination of health and social care is long over due. These border disputes about who should pay for what help nobody.

Nope, she wasn't desperate to get home, and her husband certainly can't cope so he would rather she had stayed in, and the hospital sent her out with their 'care package' in place. There is no wriggle room for the NHS.

Aka - for sure it is a total shambles and the most vulnerable people, the ones who have no fight in them, or cannot speak, haven't the capability of fight or complain are shunted off.

One day we may all be in that place and we should all be very afraid. This isn't unusual, or a one-off but one of thousands.

I wish I was surprised but sadly I'm not. It's a total shambles.

I wouldn't be surprised if they were asked if they could cope at home, and she wanted to go home so much that she said yes. Because i had it happen with my next door neighbour. She was delivered to my door (she had no idea where her key was) in an ambulance in her nightie, at an advanced stage of cancer, I gave her tea and cake and had to send her back again. Her daughter lives in France and she had to come over and sort it out.

I have heard more of that happening from relatives about elderly parents several times over the past few weeks. I think in this case, social services need contacting. A friend of mine who is ill and has MS and no feeling in her extremities has just had to get someone to drive her across the country because her mother told the hospital that her daughter would take care of her at home - so a neighbour rang when said mother aged 96 after a bad fall and attached to a drip arrived home in an ambulance. As my friend has 'flu it's hardly an ideal situation. The hospitals seem to be too quick to take the elderly people's word for it when they say that they will receive adequate care.

Are the carers employed by an agency? Don't be too quick to blame the NHS if the agency is not employing fully trained carers.

There's nothing to stop you ringing the GP and saying how worried you are about your neighbour. No-one should be dealing with a PEG without the proper training - quite ridiculous.

That is disgusting! Poor woman left in this situation

Can't do it - we have to stand by because only her husband, son, daughter can complain and that is why the NHS get away with hurting, killing people.

Just one small story amongst oh so very many. And inevitably the next post will be from someone praising their NHS care - and I'll say compared with what! Were you able to speak, feed yourself, move. Just because you have survived the NHS does not mean that your experience was as good as it should have been. Just because you are grateful for surviving at all, does not mean that your treatment should and could have been much, much better. Next time, watch out.

The sickest institution in our country is the NHS, and it's terminal.

Not carer activity surely. They have no nursing qualifications. Poor woman.

In my day this would have been dealt with by the District Nursing team!
And it jolly well would have dealt with correctly!

This must not be allowed to go on. Call emergency doctor, ambulance, anyone to get help for this lady. What an horrendous situation!