Hi guys,
I’m new to this forum, so apologies if this isn’t appropriate, or the correct place to do this!
I’m currently caring for my mum. She’s in a mental position where she is on so much medication, and has quite significant mental health challenges.
One of the difficulties we’re having is that she is receiving care from multiple hospitals, GPs and local surgeries. All of which are treating different things, and can have poor communication with each other.
Does anyone have any ideas as to how I can get control of all of these affairs? I’m authorised by all hospitals and doctors to access records and act on my mums behalf so I don’t think we should have any problems there.
Would it be reasonable to write a letter to each hospital/GP/local service she uses and asking them if they could put into writing the current position of her care and the proposed next steps? or is this unrealistic?
Sorry guys, I’m just finding it very hard to keep on top of all this whilst working full time. My mum tries her best but her memory does fail her at times!
It was a huge problem for my mum, living right on the border of Hampshire and Dorset.
She had a revolutionary knee replacement in Southampton. Later, when I had knee problems after a car accident, I had the same surgeon, he used to take mum’s x rays with him when he lectured abroad!
Some time later, she had a problem and pleaded with the ambulance staff to take her back to Southampton, not Royal Bournemouth (RBH), but they took her to Bournemouth, purely because the ambulance queue was shorter!!!
The hospitals used different computer systems and didn’t talk to each other.
No matter how many times I pleaded with staff to find out more about her knee, I was ignored. They “knew all about knee replacements”. Not this one!
The physio said mum wouldn’t co operate with her to do her exercises, because she didn’t know about the special knee.
On another occasion, I was told by RBH that mum was so frail that she wasn’t well enough to live alone even with a live in carer.
A few weeks later, Lymington Hospital, under Southampton, wanted to send her home, totally bed bound, with no live in carer, just 3 visits a day!!! I kicked up a fuss about this.
I never did find an answer to this issue I’m afraid, but it’s time it was sorted once and for all.
Patient care should not be compromised because of the proximity to a county boundary!!