Hello
I’ve been in constant battle with my local hospital ever since mum had a stroke last February.
Sadly mum’s been in and out of hospital due to complications.
On almost every visit they’ve been borderline neglectful, or they’ve messed up her meds, and we have had constant inconsistent information from doctors and consultants.
I’ve had to previously send an email drafted by a solicitor to get a ward to take mum’s case seriously. I’ve gone through PALS and submitted a big complaint following an unsafe discharge and lack of care on the stroke ward.
The care my mum gets on other wards seems to depend on which doctor or consultant is on duty. It’s so distressing. And it’s just not improving.
We were recenlty told a PEACE form was required and was not open to discussion with the rest of the family - then another consultant revoked it 2 days later.
It’s a constant stress as it’s just me advocating and coordinating care.
Apart from the usual channels (e.g. Pals) is there another organisation that can help me right now?
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Sadly my mum was treated similarly badly when admitted to various hospitals, even when I had POA I was ignored. Heartbreaking.
Hi.
I had similar issues when Graham was admitted to hospital last October. The thing which saved us was my Complaint to the CEO which was picked up (belatedly) by the Deputy Chief Nurse who personally intervened and (mostly) from there on the Care improved - with the exception of one night HCA!
I have no confidence in PALS as they took ages to START to deal with the issues and basically told me they could do nothing other than ask the ward for ‘their side of the story’.
Even taking into account the pressures the wards are under, there is no excuse for the treatment some patients receive. To squeeze a fifth bed into a four-bed ward with no privacy curtain, no oxygen supply (which was essential and prescribed for the first week) without stretching a line across the next bed; and a host of other problems. The Ward Manager was not interested and ignored my POA til the Big Boss appeared on the scene! After that I was involved at every step - but then I was spending 10+ hours a day present on the ward!
I hope you can manage to get some help. If you have serious issues which are not being addressed then do consider writing a formal complaint to the Chief Executive of the Hospital. It’s not something I had thought to do previously but it got results.
Have you asked if the hospital has a Carer’s Liaison Officer? Ours does - part of the problem was that she went on Leave and didn’t change voicemail to warn people and then took a week of sick leave and no-one covered or checked her messages/emails!! NOT helpful.
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I’m so sorry to read about the distress caused by the appalling care for Graham. The CEO has already been involved in relation to the stroke consultant (via our MP), but this is a different ward so I’ll probably have to do it again! It’s absolutely crazy that we have to get the Top Dog to pull rank just to provide basic care.
Our version of Carer’s Liaison Officer is useless for my purposes - they just give me leaflets. They wouldn’t listen to me or support me adequately when I raised concerns about attitudes of the stroke ward consultants and OT (they then believed me when mum had an unsafe discharge from that ward and we submitted a huge PALS complaint!). They’re not on my side.
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Our PALS office insists on only dealing with matters by phone or a specific appointment if you HAVE to be seen! When you ring it is an answerphone. When I eventually got through I was told they had lost MORE staff and they just couldn’t cope. This was passed back to Chief Nurse who told me that was incorrect and they had an extra member of staff not less - she hit the roof when she found out they were telling people lies.
A second complaint went nowhere and I pressed only to be told the Ward had informed them it had been resolved… No it hadn’t - more lies!
Anyway - that doesn’t help you. All I can suggest is you make a darn nuisance of yourself. The squeaky gate gets the oil !!!
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Why are hospitals such liars? The lack of transparency isn’t accepted in most other sectors. It’s absolutely disgusting they get away with it.
I’ve made a nuisance of myself this week and got what my mum needed this week.
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Good for you - keep it up - remember you aren’t making a fuss for yourself but for Mum - for someone you love and care for. Don’t ever apologise for loving and caring so much.