Hi - I've not been on here for some years. I didn't think I'd need to once mum went into the care home in 2016.
In general both my sister and I are very happy with the care that our mum gets in the home, but the home is very bad at communicating stuff to us, especially where it concerns mum's health. We both have LPA for finances, and for health and welfare, and as you probably know, we have to report back to the Office of the Public Guardian every year (my sister does this). They are quick enough to communicate if it concerns money though.
My sister and I agreed that she would handle all the finances and I would deal with the health and welfare stuff. I live about a mile from the care home and my sister lives about 250 miles away. My sister was recently in a video meeting regarding continuing care for mum, which was not granted, and during this meeting things about mum's health were discussed that neither of we siblings was aware of - for example it came out that mum has kidney disease and we didn't know it.
When I was able to go to visit mum, the last time I noticed a dressing on her leg and on questioning the carer it seems she has a haematoma and is under the care of the District Nurse. I only found out about this because I asked about the dressing.
I don't expect a phone call every time they need to put a plaster on say, a cut finger, but kidney disease? During my last talk with the OPG regarding DoLS I mentioned that I wasn't happy with the level of communication and my contact in the OPG passed this on to the home - I then got a voice message from the Registered Manager saying she was 'sorry that I felt that way,' no acknowledgement that perhaps things could be done a little better in communicating things to families.
Any ideas how I can get the care home to communicate better, though if they can't let us know when mum's been diagnosed with kidney disease, what hope have we got? I've already tried the 'we need to know because we have to report to the OPG' without success.
In general both my sister and I are very happy with the care that our mum gets in the home, but the home is very bad at communicating stuff to us, especially where it concerns mum's health. We both have LPA for finances, and for health and welfare, and as you probably know, we have to report back to the Office of the Public Guardian every year (my sister does this). They are quick enough to communicate if it concerns money though.
My sister and I agreed that she would handle all the finances and I would deal with the health and welfare stuff. I live about a mile from the care home and my sister lives about 250 miles away. My sister was recently in a video meeting regarding continuing care for mum, which was not granted, and during this meeting things about mum's health were discussed that neither of we siblings was aware of - for example it came out that mum has kidney disease and we didn't know it.
When I was able to go to visit mum, the last time I noticed a dressing on her leg and on questioning the carer it seems she has a haematoma and is under the care of the District Nurse. I only found out about this because I asked about the dressing.
I don't expect a phone call every time they need to put a plaster on say, a cut finger, but kidney disease? During my last talk with the OPG regarding DoLS I mentioned that I wasn't happy with the level of communication and my contact in the OPG passed this on to the home - I then got a voice message from the Registered Manager saying she was 'sorry that I felt that way,' no acknowledgement that perhaps things could be done a little better in communicating things to families.
Any ideas how I can get the care home to communicate better, though if they can't let us know when mum's been diagnosed with kidney disease, what hope have we got? I've already tried the 'we need to know because we have to report to the OPG' without success.