Experience of district nurses please.

Whethertomorrow if you phone your health centre they will be able to give you a direct number for the district nursing dept. If it’s like ours, your call will go to an answer machine as they’re all out during the day. You can leave a message and they’ll pick it up later when they’re back to base. Alternatively if you phone before 8.30am you might catch them before they set off for the day. Sorry you’re having a miserable time 💐

I had some elderly neighbours and the husband had to have his leg amputated. They had such a lot of trouble with district nurses who were supposed to call and change his dressings regularly. Sometimes they turned up but forgot to bring clean dressings, other times they didn’t turn up and the wife would waste an hour or so on the phone to the surgery to get someone out again. They were supposed to take the dirty dressings away and his wife always bagged them up and left them at the back door but they usually forgot. It was a boiling hot summer and they used to smell. I used to feel sorry for his wife as she was elderly herself and not good on her legs.

I’m not in any way trying to show them in a bad light. I said I didn’t blame them.
My thinking was that if the senior managers give them a huge workload with too many cases to see in a day, that if they have missed cases then that would give them some much needed breathing space without getting into trouble from the senior managers.

My much loved daughter is a sister in the NHS and her workload is horrendous so I have immense sympathy for all in the service.

Perhaps my lack of interaction with people has made me clumsy in communication via texts so I apologise for my poor communication skills.

Whethertomorrow

Thank you everyone for your comments.

After 3 phone calls I got through to the right people. I apologised for missing their visit. The nice man said don’t worry it happens all the time! They should have let me know the day but somehow I got missed!

I wonder if missed visits are a way of lessening their workload. I don’t blame them for that.

I’m expecting them Monday or Tuesday and they will hopefully phone before arrival.

Thank you all again for taking the time to comment.

How on earth can you class then calling on you and you not being up as a 'missed visit and are a way of lessening their workload'? They have increased their workload by having to call again. You seem intent to show the nurse in a poor light.

Whethertomorrow

Thank you everyone for your comments.

After 3 phone calls I got through to the right people. I apologised for missing their visit. The nice man said don’t worry it happens all the time! They should have let me know the day but somehow I got missed!

I wonder if missed visits are a way of lessening their workload. I don’t blame them for that.

I’m expecting them Monday or Tuesday and they will hopefully phone before arrival.

Thank you all again for taking the time to comment.

Ah! good that you got it sorted!

But remember, if they are taking bloods from you, they will probably come early rather than later, as they have to get the samples off to the path lab fairly soon after they are taken.

Good luck with the next visit.

i had to have the district nurses come in every day for 6 weeks, the first 3 weeks everything was great until one left and the lady i got was very nippy and not very gentle, the dressings were because of lymph nodes being removed from my groin, i did say to her to call me as i had an entry buzzer and i needed to get down the stairs, i did say that i was happy to wait till the end of her patients as i knew that people needed medication and injections first thing, i ended up with an infection because she kept forgetting to bring stuff to clean the wound, so it was back to hospital then another two months of district nurses, i had to ask them not to send her back to me.. most of them were brilliant and all i ever asked was a call to give me time to get downstairs to let them in.

I’m glad to say that my experience of visiting Nurses was just about the opposite to what’s been described on here. My mother was housebound for several years and the Community Nurses visited several times a week. Although my brother lived with her latterly he also kept strange hours and so a keysafe was installed and they let themselves in. On the many occasions I was staying to look after mum (I live 300 miles away) they continued their regular visits and one time they arrived as I’d just started cleaning and changing mum, I was shooed away and told that I needed a rest (I did) and they took over.

I appreciated them so much I sent a letter of thanks after my mother died.

Thank you TurtleDove, it had only been a week since GP sent me a text and I really didn’t think the nurses would have been round so soon!

If you hadn't heard from the doctors since the 24th January about some tests you were having done at some point then you should have picked up the phone and spoken to the receptionist at the GP's and asked them to let you know when the district nurses were coming as you were due some blood tests.

I disagree with germanshepherdsmum about you being up and waiting for them because you didn't even know they were coming that day as you had never been given an appointment.

I would never wait all that time if I was due for a blood test I would just have telephoned the surgery and made enquiries.

Thank you everyone for your comments.

After 3 phone calls I got through to the right people. I apologised for missing their visit. The nice man said don’t worry it happens all the time! They should have let me know the day but somehow I got missed!

I wonder if missed visits are a way of lessening their workload. I don’t blame them for that.

I’m expecting them Monday or Tuesday and they will hopefully phone before arrival.

Thank you all again for taking the time to comment.

I am surprised your neighbour across the road is able to cheat the system…….someone has to inform the District Nurse

I feel for you. I don't have a good word to say about district nurses. They were supposed to visit DH when he was terminally ill, they came once in May and did not return again until July and told me that I had told them not to come 😲
When they eventually made daily visits they spent five minutes standing at the foot of the bed, asked to use the bathroom and left without doing anything physical. I was a 75 year old who had major cancer surgery and I was expected to do all the nursing myself. Two years on I am still raging about the lack of care from nurses.

I also have severe sleep problems. I have lived here for 24 years and I have told the District nurses that I cannot be up and ready without warning . as I often sleep so badly thar I need to remain in bed til 11am This worked for a while,I only needed to be told which day was most likely. but they kept messing up at their end and then told me to buy my own BP machine and do it myself.
I can't take my own blood for blood tests and then they get annoyed as I have "difficult" veins. So they have to work that one.

They won't go to people who are not housebound and the lady across the road to me needed bandages changed 3x a week. She waited til they left and then jumped in her car and went out. It is a small village and I was amazed she never got caught by them. I never told them what she was doing but I did feel a bit sore that she got aay with that.

Caleo

If Tesco were in charge of NHS communications these problems would not happen.

No, but the bandages and painkillers would be missing from the delivery of care.

If Tesco were in charge of NHS communications these problems would not happen.

I think they should give you a window, say between 8 -12 or 2-5, just as they do with Amazon deliveries and the like. It doesn’t really matter whether you are disabled and are at home most of the day. That’s not the point.
Btw Whethertomorrow, I am an insomniac too, although I try to get to sleep before 2 a.m. I do have prescription sleeping tablets which I take if I am really struggling. Have you had a word with your GP.?

If you are to have bloods taken, I'd imagine the visit would be scheduled early in the day. Whichever day it's going to be.

Blood samples, I believe, have to be delivered fairly promptly to the hospital path lab and can't be left overnight for example, because the blood coagulates.

That's why they called early. And probably will do again - so I think you should call your surgery and attempt to get a 'window' for the next visit. It can probably be narrowed down to a particular day, or maybe a couple of days. But you'll need to rest in a chair rather than go to bed, if you don't get a specific day allocated.

I'm sorry that this has happened to you .
I went through a stage of setting the alarm for six to get dressed and my father , who was embarrassed by his incontinence ready for a health professional visit .
And then , I'd wait and wait and wait .

The phlebotomist was okay , most of the district nurses were fine , but the appalling behaviour of one of the incontinence nurses and particularly that of the respiratory nurse made me really angry . She caused my father to become really stressed and I asked for another nurse for the next visit .

One of my friends has the care of his father with dementia and his mother with cancer and he actually records every single visit .

I don’t think it’s common practice for DNs I’ve worked with to make appointments, as they generally only visit those who are housebound and usually at home, often with carers.
Hopefully they will call again, ask GPs for a number to contact them.

Surely the district nurse takes blood, maybe it was a trainee with her, if it takes 2 to take blood no wonder the NHS is on its knees. Anyway, they'll doubtless return. Whilst it's handy to know what day they may come, having an appointment is unreasonable. They have a set round they visit and fit in the 'one-offs' around it. Fixing appointments is generally more time consuming than just turning up unless you are far off their route.

What time did they call Whethertomorrow? If they arrived during normal daytime hours, between 9 and 5, it would be reasonable to assume a housebound person would be awake, and at home. If you weren’t housebound you’d be expected to go to the surgery. They wouldn’t know your very unusual sleeping habits, and therefore getting angry with them is a waste of your energy, even though it would have been courteous of them to let you know in advance that they were coming.

Same thing happens here. No advance warning and much surprise their patient isn’t waiting for them. Our surgery is helpful in overcoming issues.

I apologise for not understanding that they didn’t give a day, but particularly given the very odd hours you keep could you not have asked when they were likely to come and explained why you needed to know? You are putting the onus entirely on them. As you are housebound they would have expected you to be there within normal working hours.

Surely they must have a very rough idea
Say, morning or afternoon.

I would assume that they knew you didn’t leave the house so could call anytime. It would make sense that they do non urgent visits when in your area and can be fitted in with other appointments.

Either contact where they are based asking for them to phone before they come or just wait for them to return.