Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: pscocoa on 11 November 2011, 06:52:44
-
I will remember 11th November and will hopefully be able to observe the silence but will be driving to Manchester this morning for a very difficult battle with NHS who are trying to discharge my mother from hospital when she is in pain and cannot stand unaided (needs 2 people). They propose to discharge her to home supported by at least 7 visits a day when she is at home which is nonsense and she should be going to a nursing home - she is not medically fit in my view and NHS say she is.
There is little dignity in sitting in one place when someone is not always there to help you to the toilet. They are hoping she will make a decision to go into a home herself so that the costs will be for her account.
She is very frightened by the prospect of discharge to home.
We are making enquiries as to homes as a back up measure of course.
I have asked that the matter be escalated to a Review Panel.
Do not need this as we have same situation in Cornwall with MIL but at least there the NHS say they will fund the nursing home. A trip down there next week as well.
-
Quite so PS - whilst we remember the fallen and maimed on this day we must also remember the plight of many of our old people as they try to survive with dignity and hope in this brave new land.
If we can't look after our own people in need the sacrifices made in war and conflict become meaningless.
I do hope that you are successful in you attempts to have your mother treated as she should be – with dignity, compassion and professional expertise.
-
Best of luck with this, I think you can have an independant assessment carried out as to her fitness to be discharged to home. PALS are quite good in our area. My mum was discharged without any care package once, I had to refer her to social services myself which was disgusting. NHS is a pile of shite.
-
No offence intended and its just a question, but why shouldnt someone pay for their own care? Why should the NHS? Budgetary constraints mean that money for cancer services, palliative care, maternity care are all compromised. Yet millions get used to provide ongoing care for people when clearly they have savings to pay for care and yet choose not to.
I am not stating this in response to the OP as I dont know what the individual circumstances are, but in general expecting the NHS to pay for ongoing care for everyone will mean that acute medical care/treatments will be compromised. There is only one pot of money and so much to go around.
-
I will remember 11th November and will hopefully be able to observe the silence but will be driving to Manchester this morning for a very difficult battle with NHS who are trying to discharge my mother from hospital when she is in pain and cannot stand unaided (needs 2 people). They propose to discharge her to home supported by at least 7 visits a day when she is at home which is nonsense and she should be going to a nursing home - she is not medically fit in my view and NHS say she is.
There is little dignity in sitting in one place when someone is not always there to help you to the toilet. They are hoping she will make a decision to go into a home herself so that the costs will be for her account.
She is very frightened by the prospect of discharge to home.
We are making enquiries as to homes as a back up measure of course.
I have asked that the matter be escalated to a Review Panel.
Do not need this as we have same situation in Cornwall with MIL but at least there the NHS say they will fund the nursing home. A trip down there next week as well.
Get in touch with Social Services, your mother is entitled to an assessment and you may get the support you need, part funded by both agencies, just a thought but worth a try............ :)
-
The PALS service proved to be brilliant in convening a meeting of the medical team to meet me at 2.30pm yesterday giving me time to drive up from Sandhurst and first meet for 45 mniutes with social services. No discharge will be taking place anytime soon. But lessons to be learned - when medical team say fit for discharge and social services take over - the whole thing changes if you say you want to go private - in my mother's case she misunderstood her options and thought she was going to be sent home in pain. As soon as she said "private" the social service people said ok you can go as soon as you like.
This has all now been reversed and areas of medical fitness are now being questioned and social services. There are a huge number of issues converging on this case which I will not bore you with but she was within a whiskers of paying £2500 a month for care.
To the post about why not pay private - that is fine if you want a specifc programme but in my mother's case it was a misunderstanding of the crap situation and hand over between NHS medical and social services in the context of a cash strapped local service.
Next target date is the referral to a hip specialist - not sure why this was not done before as this is the source of the whole problem and yet does not appear to have been explored when I checked her notes.
-
After my last post I went in to Ward on 13th Nov to read my mum's notes and found a recommendation for referral to a hip specialist dated 9th November. We started pushing via PALS and GP for when this was going to happen and were given a date of 8th Dec.
She went in for Xray yesterday and at 7pm last night I get the call that the hip is dislocated and she is going for manipulaive surgery today - if she is well enough as she now has chest infection.
Hip dislocation was missed on admission xray on October 27 and they have geen trying to do physiotherapy on it in conjunction with powerful pain killers since then - shocking.
Bear in mind that throughout and despite the pain she was in NHS have maintained resolutely that she was medically fit for discharge.
This is negligence and breakdown of communication on a grand scale.
PALS have not been back in touch at all in last 8 days which iwill now have to change and we will want a meeting with Chief Exec of NHS Trust to explain what went wrong.
Thing is the hip could have been dislocated for months and she has spent weeks and weeks in hospital this year with mobility issues.
It is a frightening prospect as to what would have been the outcome if they had managed to discharge her leaving us all thinking that it was just old age and nothing could be done.
-
That makes grim reading without doubt PS - then, that's the logical result of lax (and toothless) regulation in my view.
Hope your mother gets sorted out today - without too much distress. :y
-
A better day.
Mother in law - appeal for NHS Continuing Nursing care successful - i.e they pay for nursing care home
Mother - consultants huddled for a couple of days now referring her to specialist hip surgery unit at another hospital - this has been a real battle - were it not for family disputing doctors at highest levels she would have been discharged with a broken hip joint and a ridiculous number of visits by social services dosing her up with pain killers. Not out of woods yet as she is not well and operation has risks but she wants to go for it
-
Jesus. The vast majority of our health workers are fantastic people with my full support, but when they get something as badly wrong as missing a dislocated hip...
-
That news is more encouraging PS - however it would be nice to believe that hospitals were places of safety where the needs of the patient were of paramount importance and, in being so, did not require constant vigilance by the loved ones of the patient to ensure that proper steps were being taken towards their care and treatment.
-
That news is more encouraging PS - however it would be nice to believe that hospitals were places of safety where the needs of the patient were of paramount importance and, in being so, did not require constant vigilance by the loved ones of the patient to ensure that proper steps were being taken towards their care and treatment.
The whole thing is worrying particularly for the many who have no one to support them. I really do not know what to think at present.
I spoke to soon about having a good day earlier - my neighbour's son in law has just been round to say his FIL is unlikley to last the night - he was supposed to come home today and my wife has just taken delivery of the riser type chair for them - we are told it will not be used.
Difficult times.
-
That news is more encouraging PS - however it would be nice to believe that hospitals were places of safety where the needs of the patient were of paramount importance and, in being so, did not require constant vigilance by the loved ones of the patient to ensure that proper steps were being taken towards their care and treatment.
The whole thing is worrying particularly for the many who have no one to support them. I really do not know what to think at present.
I spoke to soon about having a good day earlier - my neighbour's son in law has just been round to say his FIL is unlikley to last the night - he was supposed to come home today and my wife has just taken delivery of the riser type chair for them - we are told it will not be used.
Difficult times.
my wife has just taken delivery of the riser type chair for them
Yes, even though we all know what will eventually befall us it’s seemingly ordinary everyday things such as this - tangible things - that really make the finality of the event even more prescient.
You are quite right - difficult times - just about says it all.
-
Saga with my mum continues - it had all gone quiet waiting for appointment with specialist unit - asked for update - everyone at NHS hospital says they are still waiting.
My mother is in hospital - we go to her house - there is the appointment letter in the post dated 2nd Dec for appointment tomorrow 9th Dec.!! We go back to hospital and of course it is someone else's fault but what is the point of sending a letter to a patient's home address when she is in the hospital clearly as an in patient.
All kicks off again tomorrow now. 90 mile round trip by ambulance.
-
Saga with my mum continues - it had all gone quiet waiting for appointment with specialist unit - asked for update - everyone at NHS hospital says they are still waiting.
My mother is in hospital - we go to her house - there is the appointment letter in the post dated 2nd Dec for appointment tomorrow 9th Dec.!! We go back to hospital and of course it is someone else's fault but what is the point of sending a letter to a patient's home address when she is in the hospital clearly as an in patient.
All kicks off again tomorrow now. 90 mile round trip by ambulance.
Yes that's the frustrating thing PS - it's always some else's fault. It beats me how these people survive in a job when incompetence such as that is at large.
If managers would take a leading interest in how staff performed their duties (rather than protecting their arses by diffusing responsibility for competence across a number of sources) then perhaps the performance of those under their command would be greatly improved.
I hope your mother gets sorted out soon. :y