Opinions on hospital duty of care pl

[Flavelle]

Opinions needed please, I am trying to be succinct. Back in May my Dad had a fall & we knew he’d broken himself somewhere due to how he was moving. I called our doc, who is great, and then went to the local hospital to get him checked over. (FYI I didn’t put him in a wheelchair as it was likely to make him panic/ think he was really ill/ being left and refuse to walk, I was also exhausted and had arranged to go away the next day so I was aiming to check all was OK before swapping carer duties.) Once at the hospital I led him the short distance into the lobby, with a frame, issuing clear blunt instructions and repeating them, as you do. I was standing in front to encourage him to straighten up and ensure he didn’t topple. (On one side I am used as a leaning post and can’t risk further sciatica.) When I turned round and saw the expression on the receptionist’s face I knew I had been judged, so unfortunately the next hour and a half we spent there I was subjected to the usual messed up verbal multiple choice to assess my state of mind. Fair play- doing their job BUT my poor Dad wasn’t diagnosed...they just said his gait was due to the seriousness of his dementia. Well of course it wasn’t! Sadly it took my son a further visit to our doctor & then driving his Gd into a further afield hospital to get the X-ray which I said we needed in the first place. Finally they.worked out he had a fractured pelvis. Poor old guy, shame carers are often treated so shoddily.
I have filled in a feedback form at the hospital...no response of course...no apology! Any views on chasing this up anyone? Should I get back to them again/ Someone else...anyone know who? I would hate this to happen to someone more eroded than myself if you know what I mean.
I think this is an indication of how difficult it is to get care for your PWD (esp when there are 2 involved) BTW this is our 3rd year of dealing with both pretty much 24/7 and no social worker, (except once in in February when I insisted we needed an interview to cover my back so to speak.) Amazing really considering the effort put into quizzing me and running safeguarding procedures...little follow through. What do you reckon anyone? Are the family best off without any SWs anyway. Keeping away from hospitals as much as possible seems to me to be the best path. However, sometimes families need help and Dementia seems to rob a person of their ability to know where their nerve endings: pain etc are. ????

 

[Palerider]

I'm surprised the hospital didn't x-ray your dad, there may be various reasons for this, but essentially the only way of knowing is by imaging. Pain is subjective and should always be beleived especially in dementia. Just to be clear, fractures don't always show up immediately on x-rays, so there is always a risk they can be missed even after an initial x-ray -which is why they are repeated if things are unclear. But this didn't happen.

There are different ways of dealing with this. First is through PALS, but it can be slow and often they don't get to the bottom of things as time passes since a complaint has been raised enough for people involved not remember events clearly.

You could ask your GP to write to your dads over seeing consultant who he was admitted under and raise this, that often works, as consultants like to know their patients have been cared for approprately and safely.

Or you could write to the chief executive of the hospital outlining the problem and your concern that it isn't repeated. This usually works as they do ask for things to be investigated if brought to their attention. I once wrote to the chief exec of a local hospital about mums experience and how she was treated and the response was positive, it was looked into and they apologised to mum. Hope that helps a little

 

[jugglingmum]

My experience of PALS was very poor. If you can muster the energy I'd go for one of the other 2 options.

I complained to PALS about the treatment of my daughter - by a nursing assistant. I'm afraid reading your post brought back awful memories, so it isn't just the elderly, more like non medical staff or low grades of medical staff playing God. My dau was 16, and by her standards very poorly, not sure if she presented well, looked older or what, but I used a wheelchair to take her into A & E as she was too poorly to walk, I suspected pneumonia. We were given a bay, had bloods done and then nursing assistant sent her for chest xray, chest not listened to at this stage. I was very firmly told I couldn't use wheelchair and couldn't go with her. I suspect they thought we were time wasters and trying to process us out ASAP. Nursing assistant returned and said oh xray taking longer than expected you better go and join her - I got to her - she was swaying and fell onto me, I think she'd walked past dau and seen this. Got back to cubical, and bloods back promptly put in a bed with loads of monitors! (she did have pneumonia - Clearly not time wasters - PALS reply was will remind staff to ensure u18s can stay with parents - and that was it.

 

[Flavelle]

Thank you for your replies. Palerider: good plan, I will muster the energy for a letter & jugglingmum that is shocking & I’m sorry you’ve relived the memories. The same hospital provided excellent care for my Mum though, so at least I can express pros as well as cons. It looks as though most carers do without the SS being involved!

 

[jugglingmum]

I've had some very good experiences in the same A & E, they were very busy that day.

I realise many people rarely visit A & E - I've got adventurous kids - which means injuries.