General Chat

I think the Toughest place to be a Paramedic is on again this week, 2.40am on Thursday morning I think it is

Lizx

I watched a programme I recorded last evening, it was from a week or so ago, about home films made of three people in their last days/weeks. It was so sad, and those people were all badly let down, especially the poor chap in hospital who was spoken to so unkindly when he couldn't swallow tablets, by several different members of staff and also the poor man who wanted to die at home, his poor wife tried so hard to get help for him and the gp and the nurses who call at home really let them down.
I also recorded a programme about elderly Asian people in a care home run just for Asians, the care seemed so much kinder and more sympathetic.

Really scary watching some of the stuff I saw, just hope I have someone who will stick up for if I end up somewhere like a home or hospital and haven't the strength or ability to speak up for myself.

Lizx

IslandinTheSnow

Thank you for your very kind message.

I meant every word of my offer, it is necessary that complaints and concerns reach the right authority to improve the standards for everyone. Sometimes the complaint can be a concern instead and that should also be reported. I have been on both sides, a provider, a manager and a Quality Care Adviser.
I hope that you are keeping well.

Bridget

RECENTLY SOCIAL SERVICES SENT ME A NOTE TO SAY
IN MY AREA THERE IS ONLY ONE CARE HOME IN MY AREA WITH PD
CARE EXPERIENCE
COST SHARING A BEDROOM FROM £650 A WEEK
OWN ROOM FROM £750,
I HOPE I NEVER NEED IT.
LAST YEAR WHEN OH WENT ON HOLIDAY I WAS TOLD I NEEDED SOMEONE WITH ME AT £200 A NIGHT,
I WAS LUCKY I BOOKED A CARAVAN AT THE COAST AND FRIENDS
SHARED THE TASK THIS YEAR HE'S GOING FOR 2 WEEKS
I MAY HAVE A PROBLEM

There does seem to be a difference in the staffing numbers in different types of wards. For instance, a Stroke ward appears to have a higher number of staff than a General Ward, possibly as it aims at rehabilitation. My father was well cared for on that type of ward.

However when he or my mother were on a General ward, there were fewer staff members, who seemed to spend a lot of their time having 'meetings' at the desk. Admittedly, if their attention was called to sort out a problem they dealt with it promptly and kindly, but it was often the more able bodied/aware patients or a visitor who had to ask for help! They didn't seem to regularly check the patients on their Key Lists, apart from remembering when drips needed changing.

But the lack of care is nothing new. Back in the 1980's, the catering staff went on stike. The elderly patients were dished up cheese and biscuits for supper. The cheese was in small vacuum packs and the biscuits in cellophane. They were provided with a plastic knife. NONE of the patients could open the packets. In the end, after having used my teeth on behalf of several of them (including my grandfather) the nursing staff eventually set too with the scissors .......after I'd had a hissing fit at them!!!

Think it depends on the Sister, Peter. In hospital for 12 days in a surgical ward - saw a sister twice during that time, then moved to another surgical ward I got to know the Sister quite well in 2 days!!

Same hospital following year - in for 6 months, Sisters were in and out of ward, did bed baths even assist. Matron assisted with bed baths when on early shift.

Whatever has happened to the Sister in charge of the ward? Isn't it up to her to see that all goes well on a daily basis and if not to challenge the member of staff concerned and make out a report? That was what happened years ago, why doesn't it happen now? I am elderly and am very afraid at the thought of being admitted into my local hospital.

I quite realised that but was just saying how bad some families are, it means they wouldn't even notice if their relative was being poorly cared for but showed that this woman and her colleagues are some of the caring ones who do the best they can with their patients.

Good and bad in all professions.

Liz

With respect Liz, the bill is about lack of care of the elderly in NHS hospitals, not hearsay about an individual care home.

Coincidentally I got talking to a lady at my doctor's surgery last evening, while I was waiting to see my doc, and she works in a home for dementia patients. She said some families are so bad at caring about their loved ones, she had to keep asking one family to bring in more soap to wash their Mum, their answer: we brought a tablet of soap six months ago! She said that some patients get very hostile and violent but usually if they aren't too violent the staff can talk to them like naughty children and distract them by saying let's go and see if we can find your sweets in your room or whatever, just to stop them hitting out and getting cross.
Another patient's daughter stopped her Mum having a daily local paper delivered, altho there was plenty of money in the family. Her reason: the staff read it! This lady said she never had time to stop and read a paper nor did her colleagues and even tho the patient had dementia, she still enjoyed looking through the paper. She seemed a very nice person and said she hated it when patients had to be drugged to stop them turning violent as it made them into zombies.
She was one of the better carers, but so easy to be unlucky and get rough uncaring nurses/assistants.

Lizx

nudge

IslandInTheSnow

You had every right to not only expect but also to receive excellent care for your father when he was in hospital and if I where in your shoes I would make a formal complaint not only to the hospital but also to the local CQC ( Quality Care Commission). If you need any help with this please send me a personal message.
What I was trying to say is that this terrible event that you suffered is not uncommon but it SHOULD BE.We all have the right to be cared for in an holistic and excellent manner.
Please accept my deepest sympathy and bear in mind what I have stated in this message.
Bridget

I naievely assumed that my father would be fed, washed and cared for when he was in hospital. How wrong I was!!!

No number of well cared for patients will heal the hurt and distress I'm reminded of following this report. I only had one dad.

Please remember that thousands of elderly people are well cared for both in hospital as well as local authority and private care facilities. However this does not excuse one person being neglected. Some of you may know that very recently i retired and as i put it "I hung up my nurses uniform and put away my badges" at the age of I am now i knew it was the right thing to do.
Yes it is simply shocking in this day and age that people who need care do not receive it.
I can recall the time when dementia was a condition which was not understood and people would be living in huge wards without any privacy whatso ever, they would not generally be dressed throughout the day and would simply wonder around , muttering, crying, silent, fearful and sometimes very aggressive. Food would be put in front of them and they either ate it or they didn't. so often the diagnosis was actually wrong and my husbands grandmother spent about 30 years in a very well known hospital in Essex in just such conditions.

Knowledge has improved but training and education of staff has not. Oh yes most nurses now have degrees but cannot explain or indeed know how to actually care!! most domestic staff are from overseas and have poor language skills, and the Care Assistants do not have the real care support from the qualified.
I am not saying that all hospitals and or wards are like this but believe me there are such places in both the private and NHS sectors.
Bring back the real Matrons, give the ward sisters real powers and bring back the basic twelve weeks training for anyone who is going to work in a hospital ward, and yes I do mean anyone.
As for the food in hospitals it is now generally appalling. My own mother was very well cared for in east London when she was dying in the Intensive Care department in a "poor" rated hospital in the east end of London" but when in the main ward every meal offered was of a foreign variety and with her three daughters living very far away, two in the UK and I in Spain if it had not been for a younger lady who my mother knew I cannot imagine what what have happened.
Finally I believe that all staff should be monitored by their superiors and all foreign staff should have a mandatary English language test both verbal and in writing.

Finally a true story which happened in the mid 1960s. At this time I owned 2 care homes in London and one day a nurse from overseas knocked on the door to see if we had any vacancies. As we were about to interview we made an appointment for her to return the following day and to bring with her all necessary paperwork. Having gone through the process we appointed her subject to references , CRB checks etc and a good report both weekly and at the end of the three month probationary period.

All went well for about six months and then a small incident occurred , nothing life threatening or to do with the residents and I discussed this with the the person I am now married to and he said show me her passport. As a senior immigration officer he knew what to look for...well I expect you know what is coming next..the passport was not hers' !
Remember this had been seen and checked by the registration department as well. I had to inform the authorities and she was taken to court and found guilty, as was the person who allowed her to use their passport.

Now if that was happening way back then i am sure that it is still happening.

Finally let us not forget there are thousands of care staff at all levels who do work hard, who do want to give real care and who will be equally as appalled at bad practice as we are. I believe very strongly that we should all be diligent when visiting hospitals, care homes etc and report anything which concerns us or pleases us, and to put the same in writing.

Apologies for rambling on.

For a long time there have been reports of poor care for the elderly and still it's not being sorted out. It must be awful to be in a care home where for example many of the staff are foreign so won't understand what is required or the way we expect things to be done here. If I had anyone in a home these days, I would be watching them like a hawk to make sure they were properly and kindly cared for, and I dread getting older and unwell and ending up in a home myself. Mind you, a lot of carers who go to people's homes aren't very good either. I put up a thread a short time ago about a carer who went and ate the poor woman's food in front of her and she died after being found to be suffering from malnutrition. Her family couldn't understand why she was losing weight when food was left for her and carers were supposedly going in to help feed her etc.

I was upset to hear about the elderly dementia patient who died alone while her hubby was left sitting in the waiting room, no one came to get him so he could be with her. How heartbreaking for him and her.

Things must change, and it's only by being diligent and watching out for others if we are in hospital or visiting people, and reporting callous attitudes and uncaring staff.

Lizx

Lizx

I was disgusted to hear of the disgusting way a terminally man who had been found dehydrated, in pain and distress in hospital was sent home to die.
He was given no proper pain relief, and died three days.
Ok, he wanted to go home to die, but surely this is NOT the way any healthcare employee, or a human being should treat anyone, let alone someone in the last few days of their life.

My mother was in a care home, as was a very well known referee. He kept ringing the bell but nobody came.

Eventually a puddle appeared as did the "carer".

She said "you dirty bugger" and disappeared as fast as she came.

In fairness, and mother was in there for about a year, there was never a day when they were not at least one staff member short. I became known as the biscuit man as there was never a carer to give them out, as it wasn't the tea lady's job.

Happy days

This question has been bubbling up regularly over recent years but does not seem to improve, not just in hospitals but in care/nursing homes.

However I have to say that in 2009 I spent six months in hospital (coming home in time for Christmas) and 9 weeks in ICU (do not recall much of that except last 2 weeks) and have to say that I was cared for, cuddled and nurtured.

Four months I spent in Rehab Ward (six beds) patients came and went apart from me and none were under 65. Most of the time there were 3 if not 4 beds with patients at various stages of dementia (they had usually fallen and required surgery on their knees/hips). They were cared for in every way. I had nothing to do but watch so often I was pressing buzzer for nurses to come because one or other of them decided they would walk without a nurse or a zimmer! I used to watch those opposite to check they were feeding but the nurses/care assistants were good and encouraged them to eat - and it was a slow process.

Thank goodness there are some hospitals which care, we do not hear of the many good ones but always of the bad - of which I have to say there should not be any.

Dear All

Hello

This news was on the TV and in the papers.


The NHS is failing to treat elderly patients in England with care, dignity and respect, an official report says.

The Health Service Ombudsman came to the conclusion after carrying out an in-depth review of 10 cases.

The ombudsman, which deals with serious complaints against the NHS, said the patients - aged over 65 - suffered unnecessary pain, neglect and distress.

Charities said the findings were "sickening", while the government admitted improvement was needed.

Ann Abraham, the Health Service Ombudsman, said the accounts painted a picture of NHS provision that was "failing to meet even the most basic standards of care".

Michelle Mitchell, of Age UK, said: "The inhumane treatment of older people described in this report is sickening and should send shockwaves through the NHS and government."

And Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, added the report echoed the findings of research her group had done.

"How many reports do we have to have before anything will change and patients will stop suffering?"

Nigel Edwards, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, which represents NHS trusts, said the cases highlighted were "completely unacceptable".

Steve Jamieson, the head of nursing at the Royal College of Nursing, said the "shocking report" indicated the need for a "complete overhaul" of the way care is offered to some NHS patients.


I have put this on here as one who knows how a loved one can suffer in a hospital. I also have seen much of what actually goes on.

I have got this to say:

NO WAY SHOULD THIS BE TOLERATED

Take gentle care all
Very best wishes
xx