Yes, well, panic is my middle name
No it isn't, Jennifer. I don't think so. You seem a pretty well-composed individual, from all the postings of yours that I've read.
I do wonder, though, if I'm not there, if they will find it so easy to slough off their responsibilities.
That's a very generous thought Jennifer. You reckon that your influence is causing the professionals to relinquish their responsibilities and that when you take more of a back seat, they will suddenly assemble themselves into a rational, efficient and sensible outfit? You have a very kind nature to think that.
Things do go right of their own accord sometimes, but its usually the random monkey-let-loose-on-a-keyboard-producing-Hamlet-once-in-a-few-thousand millennia scenario, in my crabby and cold hearted opinion. Not a slur on individuals, just on an over worked system. That goes double for Bank Holidays, by the way.
As for who has clout, in the hospital system, well you could try disinterring the PALS officer for the hospital, who can sometimes be surprisingly useful at pulling threads together. Failing that, I think I would insist in speaking either to the Ward Sister, or to the Consultant ( or their locum) who is charge of your mum's care, and ask, with all the restraint you can muster, what plans are being made for an MDT. I think I would come over, if I were you but bring your laptop so you can keep in touch with us. . Make sure your sternum is OK before you travel. You don't want to spend time in our A and E's.
Your mum may be OK, after discharge, cared for in her present home, but with the input of District Nurses and other community professionals and increased levels of care support. What is nagging in my mind is that your Assisted Living-type home may say she HAS to go into their nursing wing, as they can't cope with her in the usual place. Are they not sniffing around trying to take a view as to what she may need in the future? When my mum was 999'd into hospital, the representatives of the home whizzed up with indecent haste and proclaimed that she could not be readmitted back to the home even though the hospital could only find traces of indigestion, not anything worse. I'm not trying to scare you. I'm just thinking through what happened to my mum.
The other thing that occurs to me is this, and please forgive me if it is less than terribly helpful. Is there any way you could bring your mum closer to you? It's a pretty intolerable strain trying to keep an eye on your mum even when she is twenty minutes down the road, but from your distance you are having to place a helluva lot of faith in people and systems you can barely influence. As you know, the Assisted Living model is very big in the States, and you might have more choice and certainly more influence there than here. Please forgive if this has just added to your worry. I'm very sorry, and wish you and your mum good luck.