on the early hrs satday morning my father age 78 fell and broke is hip.
they took him to doncaster hospital.
the next day he had a hip replacement.
they said that thro the night he was disorientated and was talking gibberish.
they gave him a general anesthetic although he had a stroke two years previous
my wife had a stroke in 2003 at the age of 40,shes had two operations since but only under a local because of clots e.t.c.
to me its obvious that they dinot read his history before the operation.
he also has terminal lung cancer,& the advanced stage of postrate cancer.
when i went to see him yesterday he looked like had had another stroke.
also he was in severe pain. i told him to press is button for a nurse,and guess what.
no panic button at the side of his bed.
it his is own hospital, been treated there for all his illnesses why did they not read is records.
please help.
is this normal practice
sorry to hear that, gardentg, can't help with the queries but my thoughts are with your dad, my mum in law had a hip replacement and went through all sorts before she recovered, all the very best to you and your dad
So sorry to hear about your dad. It sounds like you need to get a bit pushy with the hospital. I'm sure there are people on here who will have some advice and practical ways of making sure your Dad gets the best care
Take Care
Really sorry to hear about your Dad gardentg.
I do know in the elderly they usually get disorientated and talk gibberish when they've had a general and can take quite a while for the anesthetic to get out of their systems.
Sorry I can't be of any more help and hope your Dad gets back to his old self soon
You should talk to someone in patient liaison or similar. My m-i-l has had dreadful treatment at her local hospital over the years, including her records being lost several times. :( Don't mind naming and shaming, it's Stepping Hill in Stockport. She has had good treatment by some nurses, but even a load of doctors (including her specialist) walked out recently , it was getting so bad!
Your poor dad, sounds like he had enough worries without this.
This is a sad situation that must be really upsetting, can only echo previous posts
and reccomend that you complain -- make noise about his care,
I hope things will improve for your dad, he has gone through a lot but can made more
comfortable while he is in hospital and hope that he will be home again soon, xxx
They may not have had much choice other than to give your father a new hip, for instance, if he was in so much pain. You said "to me its obvious that they did not read his history before the operation" Have you spoken to the nursing staff and did they say they were not aware of his other health problems?
Was there someone with your father when he was admitted and did they give his medical history on admittance? Maybe they have given him medication to prevent blood clots as he has a history of a stroke.
Sometimes the panic button is placed under the mattress and your father may not have remembered where it was. Do please speak to someone in charge there.
Complain by all means but only when you have all the information and if you feel there has been negligence.
I hope your father recovers from his fall soon.
My mother is in hospital at the moment - nothing serious, just an infection.
But to get any information out of the staff is impossible. Its like a secret society.
They are also on a H&S work to rule. anything I say or do appears to be against the rules. "You can feed her that", You cant leave that there" etc.
Everytime I arrive, her buzzer is stored neatly on the wall - Whats the point of that? My mother, confined to bed cannot reach it !, Although I have taken lots of things in for her, everything is put away in the cupboard, completely out of her reach. So she has to lay there with no books or magazines to read - is this a conspiracy to get people to pay for the TV ?
One thing they did tell me was that she was dehydrated. Was there a drink on her table. No, not even water. When I pointed that out, strangely its nothing to do with them.
I the past my mother has received quite good care, but now they are only concerned with treatment. Care appears to have gone completely out of the window.
If you want to complain, you need to write tho the executives office.
I did that a few years ago. What a waste of time. The NHS is a closed shop. I received a letter back after three weeks saying that they could find nothing wrong with their procedures and operations. Yet I had receives appalling service.
Only in the NHS can you get away with treating people as just objects and get away with it.
I believe the plan is to ensure all nurses are qualified to at least degree level. All that does is produce a staff that think they know it all, strutting around, looking/talking down at you as clearly all patients and relatives are stupid, even worse than it is now.
God, how I never want to visit hospital ever again.
I to feel hospital care has gone down.
The wrong type of people are becoming nurses, as you say it is a degree that counts now, where is the care, what do'es being a nurse mean, its not nursing now. its all high tec, years ago I worked in a hospital where there different levels of nursing staff who cared for the patients ie Matrons, Sisters, Staff nurses, s.e.a.n.s nursing aids.also most hospitals had their own cleaners who worked all day, not contract cleaners who have to do the work is a short time. I feel sorry for the few good nurses who do care deeply about their patients and their vocation,I am so sorry to hear about your mother, kick up a stink .she should have better care than she is having, or not having.
I hope she is gettting well, and home again.soon
June.
obviously I dont know the exact details in your dads casse but im sorry to hear this has happened and how unhappy you are with the care he has been given.
I would be very surprised if the hospital were not aware of his previous medical history, but im certain they would have made a decision to operate on the fact that he would be in permenant pain, and unable to mobilise without this operation. Does he take some kind of medication either dipyridamole (persantin) aspirin or clopidogrel, if so that is for clot prevention, plus they would probably have him on tinzaparin, or a heparin of some sort.
You feel he may have had another stroke which is possible but as people have mentioned an anaesthetic can confuse elderly people. Also has he been tested for a urinary tract infection this can make people very confused. Any infection a person picks up that has had a previous stroke can bring out all the symptoms and side effects of their previous stroke but these disappear when the infection goes.
Withr egards to the degree only nursing system i have to agree to an extent. The country will miss out on a lot of very good very capable nurses that are unable to study at degree level. Nurse training these days appears to be training managers not nurses. However not all nurses with degrees are bad nurses, I like to think im a good nurse and i have a degree.
what i find absolutely ludicrus is the fact that in the hospital i work in the cleaners are not allowed to clean up any type of body fluid, so if someone has had an accident in the toilet its the nurses that have to clean it up.
I totally agree that the nhs needs sorting out badly
You need to ask to see the consultant in charge of your dad's case so you can talk to him or her about your father's treatment and his past history and the likely prognosis. You need to make notes of what is said and let them see you doing so.
Also, talk to the ward sister about the treatment and care he is receiving and make sure he's getting fed properly and receiving pain relief.
Hospitals do seem to be increasingly badly managed and under staffed but that is not the direct fault of the medical staff so stay polite but let them know of your concerns and also let them know you will complain higher up if needs be.
Meanwhile, write a letter stating your concerns to the hospital manager and copy it to your father's GP in case follow up is needed. You have the right to expect the highest standards of care possible and for corrections to be made if mistakes have been made.
Good luck. I hope your father's discomfort is eased soon.
I totally agree with what obbelix has said
Thanks for all youre comments.
going back to see him tomorrow.
hope hes in a better state of mind ,and recieving the proper care he deservers,
as a full blown member of the (N.H.S.) He worked up to the age of 70 to get the care he deserves
I can't give you better advice than Obbelix as I am going through a similar thing and have had to do exactly that.
All the best to your dad who, like my grandad paid in to and set up the NHS for the good of us all and the thanks they get is what exactly.... ???
I'm so sorry about your father and you are clearly dissatisfied with his care, I think you need to say so.
But I would like to say a word in favour of the NHS. My mum spent 8 weeks in the new Derby hospital in summer and her care was exemplary. The staff at all levels couldn't do enough to involve us in every issue, by the end of her time there it felt like family. I suppose it may be the case that they had set up new, good systems and this hospital is an exception: but the cleaner on the ward was here, there and everywhere, you could have eaten from any surface. The meals were excellent with dedicated staff serving them and helping the (many) elderly who were unable to manage. Everything possible was put in place to help my mum(not an easy patient) to recover. Maybe we were lucky, but I wanted to put another view forward. I did write to the director of nursing to praise the care given afterwards, it is important to celebrate when they get things right.
I do hope your father can be made comfortable with his multiple problems.
Hi small, so good to hear some good news for a change
Garden t g44, hope your dad has improved, and I hope you have some good news .
June.
I think Gerry Robinson made a very good point on last nights "Can Gerry Robinson Fix Dementia Care Homes?"
He said that the fundamental problem with care, is that no-one takes the patients perspective.
Management are only look at managing the hospital in the most effective way, doctors are looking at the medical issues (in the most effective way), nurses only look at nursing (in the most effective way). The patient and their interests are totally ignored.
Also, as stated before, with the directive being that NHS staff should all be qualified (degrees for the nurses, NVQs for the assistants, it appears to me that everything is geared up to careers and how to further the staff.
In this career orientated age, the care and attention for the patient is appears sadly to be a thing of the past.
My husband had a stroke about 3 years ago and went to three different hospitals ( four different wards.) 1 Excellent, 2 Good and 1 Appalling.
In the appalling one my husband had a buzzer but when I pressed it it was 45 minutes before anyone turned up. Next time after 30 minutes I pressed the crash button, that got them moving!!! He was very disorietated and was climbing out of bed and falling onto the floor, yet it took them half an hour to respond. :o We had to mount a family rota to look after him all day every day.
I spent a week in hospital last year and becuase I eat a wheat free diet, they only managed to provide one wheat free meal a day. They transfered me at one stage to a different ward but the special bed I was using could not be transferred. ::) As I had to have my leg above my heart I asked for extra pillows to prop up my leg but was told I was only allowed two. :o
In the end I decided to discharge myself and the senior nursing manager turned up. She managed to get various thing sorted out in no time. She told me I could ask for her, only the nursing staff had refused to call her in. They did not want me to put dissatified on the discharge form. Then they wanted me to put my concerns on a separate piece of paper. In the end I covered the form in the concerns on both sides of the paper. I got a huge amount of results from it.
So my suggestion is to talk to the ward Sister or charge nurse and if that does not work insist on seeing the matron - now called the senior nurse manager. Don't take no for an answer. List your fathers needs and ask how they are going to meet them. Don't be persuaded to write to the complaints precedure you need results now, not some platitudes in six weeks time. Complain later.
We have had a thread on this type of thing before.
My Dad had awful care and my mother went in every day to feed him,he would have starved otherwise.
I will never forget when my Brother in Law was in his last hours,we sat with him for almost two days.My husband and I wanted to sit in a small lounge specially created for relatives, to eat something.We were told we could not use it by the charge Nurse as he wanted to sleep in there on his meal break :o :o :o This was the middle of the night.
My Bro in Law was only 46 and we were in to bad a state to complain.
While wonderful work does without a doubt go on in our hospitals I never take that for granted anymore,seen to many of em hanging round desks.
this thread makes me very sad, my daughter is a nurse in intensive care , she worries about her patients very much and is upset if she 'loses' one..I feel so sorry for you,gardentg
please, people, don't slag off our health service, there are very many hard working, dedicated people out there who are doing a wonderful job that I couldn't do and I would be dead twice over if it wasn't for them :-\
Manics, I wouldn't slag off the Health Service as a whole. My Dad has had great care in hospitals in Cumbria, and my m-i-l has had some good care in the past, when she said the ward sister ran the ward brilliantly, but recently it has not been good in that particular hospital, partly because they are short staffed.
Quote from: caroline7758 on December 10, 2009, 19:35:58
Manics, I wouldn't slag off the Health Service as a whole. My Dad has had great care in hospitals in Cumbria, and my m-i-l has had some good care in the past, when she said the ward sister ran the ward brilliantly, but recently it has not been good in that particular hospital, partly because they are short staffed.
think you have it in one, there caroline, never enough nurses :)
I'd disagree.
Its the amount of paperwork the staff have to fill in - cut that and the staff would have a lot more time to spend with the patients.
Its the management, the executive, the government and the league tables that insist on all the paperwork. A hospital cannot be judged as being any good without the statistics behind it. Thats seen as far more important than actual patient needs.
yeah, what do hospitals need paperwork for?
imagine a hospital without it, who know's what they might get right? ;)
Refering to paperwork in hospitals, OH has to have regular blood tests at the local hospital,
which covers a very large area. They not only take patients from the doctors surgeries, but
attend patients from the hospital itself. Small waiting room -- knee to knee -- and four rooms
in action, ie. 4 staff, it took ages. This week -- in and out before his seat got warm,
or his knees ! I thought they had decided not to take his test -- for whatever reason ?
No, ... they had a nurse doing the tests, and a back - up doing the paperwork , bagging up and
sending through.
This a NHS hospital, that has faced many hardships within the hospital itself and the effects on
the vast area that it covers, closures of crucial wards and loss of A&E, yet this hospital saved
my sons life last year , and had to send him on to a hospital that was 30 miles away in a ambulance
witha faulty radio that couldn't forward help ! The paramedics were brilliant and I will never --
--- ever forget them.
So there we are , what is the answer ?
Someone, somewhere has got to sort this out .
Forgive the rant, get very touched when I hear of people not getting the TLC they deserve.
floss xxx