One time The Banjoman’s Care Home asked me to accompany him to an appointment at the local hospital but I could only agree to meet him there. In the end the transport ambulance was so late arriving at the Home that their very kind and helpful volunteer “befriender” had arrived for duty and travelled with him and I met them at the appropriate Dept. We both accompanied him for his appointment (only testing,nothing personal) then I was able to leave him in safe hands while they waited over an hour for transport back to the Home. I had been waiting nearly an hour before the appointment because the Transport Department had told me they expected to get him there early.
The two occasions he has been taken to A & E after a fall they have called me but I have been unable to meet him at the hospital. The first time when he had broken his femur a friend who works at the hospital was able to stay with him until he was admitted but the second time he had to go by himself and the hospital staff had to cope with him.
Sadly there are just not enough Care Home staff to enable somebody to go with a resident and spend hours sitting with them in A & E. especially if they are at the end of their shift when an emergency happens. The Banjoman was at the hospital for 12 hours the other week and six of them were waiting for hospital transport home. He eventually arrived back at 1.30.a.m. having been discharged around 6.30.p.m. There is no way a member of the Care Home staff could have stayed with him for that length of time.