Washing Old Relative's Hospital Clothing

Useful thought, tho when my DH was in hosp for 3 weeks 6 years ago his pyjamas were washed. I had to buy new ones in a hurry and the jacket never came back, whereas his elderly battered old pairs remained intact. Hey ho

When DD was in a car accident and had a badly damaged arm, we had to go out and get her half a dozen new nightdresses because the ones she had were impossible to get over her damaged arm and she was getting through two or three every day.

Fortunately she was in her local hospital and we were staying at her house, so we had no laundry problems.

When my poor old Dad was terminally ill in hospital I opened his bedside locker to get something and was shocked to find a member of staff had stuffed his wet pyjama trousers on top of his damp face cloth and toothbrush. He was unable to move his arms so I know it wasn’t him. I was disgusted and asked a nurse how this had happened. She just shrugged and said it wasn’t her!

A few days later, as I sat at his bedside I noticed a green plastic bag under his bed. I retrieved it and looked inside and was shocked to find his heavily soiled pyjamas and they stunk! I spoke to a nurse about it and she explained that they cannot launder things like that and It’s up to relatives to take them home. I said that’s fine if you tell relatives and also if you tie the bags up. That bag could have sat there for weeks had I not noticed it. What about people who don’t have relatives?

Similar thing happened to my mum about 10 years ago primrose. I put my hand into her bedside cabinet and found soiled nightwear had been laid on top of clean clothes.
She had dementia and some of the staff there were not particularly helpful or patient.

OMG! That is unacceptable!!! So wrong on every level.

Primrose and Silverlining, what happened to your relatives in hospital was the fault of bad morale and bad training of the care staff.

Bad training of staff may be caused by the management, and ultimately the government's not paying enough for a national health service. It costs more to employ staff who understand at least ordinary domestic cleanliness and comfort.
I'd be inclined to blame the ward manager (the 'sister' )except that she or he may be too busy to inspect his/her patients' conditions.

We have all heard about scandalous care homes, now we hear about lack of care in the NHS.

I have often wondered whether the staff would adopt this attitude if the patient was a child or is it just ok for older people?🤔

There are rules about what is done with soiled clothing and different bags are available and should be used, with ordinary dirty clothes being placed in one bag and items which have potentially harmful soiling placed in one which is clearly labelled.
That said if you are visiting surely you look round to see if there is any washing. Sometimes the bags are too big for the locker and are put beside it where they may get kicked under the bed.
If you live some distance away it must be difficult

Glorianny

There are rules about what is done with soiled clothing and different bags are available and should be used, with ordinary dirty clothes being placed in one bag and items which have potentially harmful soiling placed in one which is clearly labelled.
That said if you are visiting surely you look round to see if there is any washing. Sometimes the bags are too big for the locker and are put beside it where they may get kicked under the bed.
If you live some distance away it must be difficult

Well they should also have rules about telling family what happens with dirty washing. This was the first time either parent had been in hospital so it was all new to me. The only info I was given was about visiting hours.

I would expect that in a hospital they would know about infection control, basic hygiene etc without expecting relatives to poke about in bags.

They didn’t even have the commonsense to seal the bag under the bed and putting urine soaked pyjamas unwrapped in a bedside locker on top of face cloth and toothbrush is repulsive!

Primrose, I know how intimidated visitors can feel and I wish visitors would feel they can complain to the ward manager, or to the registered nurse who would have been allocated to the particular patient. Care -assistant training and supervision is vital to patients' well being.

It's hard to find the right words sometimes and hospitals can be intimidating.

Primrose53

Glorianny

There are rules about what is done with soiled clothing and different bags are available and should be used, with ordinary dirty clothes being placed in one bag and items which have potentially harmful soiling placed in one which is clearly labelled.
That said if you are visiting surely you look round to see if there is any washing. Sometimes the bags are too big for the locker and are put beside it where they may get kicked under the bed.
If you live some distance away it must be difficult

Well they should also have rules about telling family what happens with dirty washing. This was the first time either parent had been in hospital so it was all new to me. The only info I was given was about visiting hours.

I would expect that in a hospital they would know about infection control, basic hygiene etc without expecting relatives to poke about in bags.

They didn’t even have the commonsense to seal the bag under the bed and putting urine soaked pyjamas unwrapped in a bedside locker on top of face cloth and toothbrush is repulsive!

I can only go on my experiences of hospital with my mother. Ordinary dirty washing in a white bag, anything contaminated with blood/urine/faeces in a green bag. Obviously not done correctly in your case. But I didn't expect hospital staff to come running to tell me when there was dirty laundry, for one thing they might not have been on duty when the patient was changed. I checked what mum was wearing then looked for what she'd had on before.
I spent long hours in the ward where she was. Staff were quite happy for me to be there once they realised I would move to accommodate any work and actually helped with things.
Staff did provide hospital wear for those left without clean things. What shocked me was how many old people had only one visit a week. Most of the staff I watched were dedicated and hard working. There were a few less competent. In your case I would have told the ward sister about things. Anything I raised with him about my mum seemed to improve.

My views is that if a nurse or a care worker doesn’t have the commons sense to separate clean from dirty clothes, or inform relatives that washing needs to be takin home, they shouldn’t be in a occupation that’s mainly about the care of very ill or vulnerable patients.That’s very basic levels of hygiene being ignored. And who suffers as well as the poor patients? the very good nurses and care workers who do their jobs with compassion with common sense and who are probably exhausted picking up the slack from the others who couldn’t care less.

If he's not going to be in for long, use Hospital gowns or PJ's, you will never keep on top of this unless your in almost daily.

Granniesunite

My views is that if a nurse or a care worker doesn’t have the commons sense to separate clean from dirty clothes, or inform relatives that washing needs to be takin home, they shouldn’t be in a occupation that’s mainly about the care of very ill or vulnerable patients.That’s very basic levels of hygiene being ignored. And who suffers as well as the poor patients? the very good nurses and care workers who do their jobs with compassion with common sense and who are probably exhausted picking up the slack from the others who couldn’t care less.

It might not even have been a nurse or care worker. Sometimes dirty clothes will be dropped on the floor. Nurse will be dealing with the patient, cleaner comes picks up the dirty things and sticks them in a locker while she does the floor.
Sometimes the relevant bags might be missing.
As for informing patients. There might be 6 nurses on a ward of 30+ people whilst they are walking round listing the washing for the visitors who is looking after the patients? Always supposing they know about the washing. If the patient is changed before their shift how would they know?
Some responsibility rests with relatives.

Shoddy work is never acceptable. Especially in a hospital.
Excuses are just that. Excuses.

Granniesunite

Shoddy work is never acceptable. Especially in a hospital.
Excuses are just that. Excuses.

Quite right. Just how I feel 👏👏

Some healthcare trusts have advice leaflets on how to deal with patients dirty laundry at home. You don’t want to catch anything, and some clothes are made of materials which will not take washing at the high recommended wash temperatures.

When my late mil was in a residential home they did the washing but frequently she ended up wearing someone else’s clothes despite labelling. With dementia she had no idea - fortunately!

I'd forgotten this but the bag mum's contaminated clothing was put into was dissolvable. No need to open it or handle the items. A very safe way of handling things www.nth.nhs.uk/resources/washing-patients-soiled-clothing/

When my MiL was in a palliative care home I often had to ask the staff to take her soiled underwear and nightie off. She was in her last few weeks of life I was told I could not do it myself.
The staff didn’t appear to care about her dignity in her dying days. I was taking her garments home to launder and knowing how particular she was it upset me. I have to say it’s not as if they were ran off their feet either because I spent enough time there to see they were not.

I am still pondering about suggestions that it should be down to the family to look for dirty washing.

When you have a 60 mile round trip to the hospital plus a terminally ill parent, the last thing on your mind is poking about for dirty washing.

It is poor organisation if the hospital cannot leave you a leaflet or write on their whiteboard that there is washing to go home.
I have no objection to washing dirty clothes belonging to a parent as long as I know it’s there!

What do patients do who have no family? Who does their washing?

Primrose53

I am still pondering about suggestions that it should be down to the family to look for dirty washing.

When you have a 60 mile round trip to the hospital plus a terminally ill parent, the last thing on your mind is poking about for dirty washing.

It is poor organisation if the hospital cannot leave you a leaflet or write on their whiteboard that there is washing to go home.
I have no objection to washing dirty clothes belonging to a parent as long as I know it’s there!

What do patients do who have no family? Who does their washing?

The hospital does it and the patients wear hospital provided nightwear because they cannot guarantee the return of individual items.

Personally I never considered it the staff's duty to sort out my mother's clothes. They were busy enough. I went through her locker and took what needed washing. I returned the clean items. Anything they considered contaminated was always in the dissolvable bag, but I didn't expect them to write things down. When my DSs visited they collected any washing as well.
It's not as if there's a huge area to search for any.

I used to do my mum's hair as well.
When she was cold I put on her socks and a cardigan.
I did it for 3 months until she died.
Maybe that's why staff were so nice to us and her, they knew she had a supportive family and was cared for.
I've done a lot of hospital visits over the years. I just do the looking for laundry automatically.

maybe they knew there was someone visiting that patient who would notice and possibly complain if she was neglected.

welbeck

maybe they knew there was someone visiting that patient who would notice and possibly complain if she was neglected.

That's entirely possible.

But I think although hospitals supply a basic level of care for every patient it is hard for staff to provide anything extra. In wards where there is a large number of patients with many needs, who are not able to do things for themselves, it is very difficult. Doing something like writing a note to visitors about washing might seem very little, but when you have two or sometimes three changes a day and 30-40 patients to deal with it becomes time consuming. Plus when they've changed one patient there's quite often another one buzzing for help.

If you live a long way away it must be difficult. But when my mum lived 100 miles from me and was hospitalised I spent every weekend staying at her place and visiting. Leaving her on Sunday night with a week's clothing and returning Friday night to collect her washing. She was younger then but still needed washing doing.

My mums soiled things were left in a bag on the windowsill of the bathroom.