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This year has, to borrow a phrase from the Queen, been an 'Annus Horribilus' for my wife and I. We have had more to do with the NHS this year than in any year that I can ever remember and the discrepancy in service levels between different hospitals has been huge and shocking.
My mother who is 82 came to stay with us over Christmas and suffered a bad TIA (otherwise known as a mini-stroke) which brought on vascular dementia overnight. From being mentally alert she often could not recognise her own family. She initially went into hospital here in Bedford where the staff were caring but very overworked. The consultant also proved to be very bad at record keeping - my mum was given a blood transfusion but the reason for it was never recorded in her notes. She was transferred up to the North East, where she lives and the care she has received there has been exceptional. We saw her last weekend and the staff had not only washed her hair but styled it so that she looked really nice.
A couple of weeks after my Mum was transferred, my mother-in-law who is 83 came to stay. She has had Alzheimer's for some time but we were shocked at just how much she had deteriorated in the two months since we last saw her. My wife had to arrange for her to be admitted to a hospital in East Essex where she lives. Service there has been a marked contrast to that which my Mum has received. We often visited to find her dressed in someone else's clothes and her hair had not been washed in weeks. She then had a fall on Sunday evening (the staff noted that she was having difficulty in walking) and on Monday she was transferred to A&E (the geriatric unit where she is staying in on the same campus as the main hospital) where they found she had broken her femur - her left leg was an inch and a half shorter than her right!
Due to a bed shortage, she was transferred to a general surgical ward. However, no-one bothered to pass on information about her extensive medication list to the ward. She missed the operating list that day and on the next day after two days without medication, her blood pressure had gone through the roof and they couldn't operate. It took several days for it to improve and the Anaesthetist took a chance even though it was risky because any more delay and repair would have been impossible and she would have spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair. That Friday afternoon, she was transferred back to the geriatric unit but without any painkillers and they waited until Monday morning before getting any prescribed. They also managed to mislay her false teeth for two days so she couldn't eat properly.
Her treatment has been callous and uncaring - so different from that my Mum has received from units which seem to be staffed at a similar level. So if you are going to be ill, make sure it is in the NE if you want decent care.
We had arranged for both our mothers to go into care homes but due to medical complications which have arisen over the last two weeks, we now need to find Nursing homes so it is back to searching all over again. Unfortunately that scuppers our plans for the YD Farnes trip in June. In fact, we haven't even been in the water yet this year and I'm beginning to wonder whether we will manage any dives at all in 2007 given all that needs to be organised. A least we have St. Kilda planned for 2008 and can at least look forward to that.
My mother who is 82 came to stay with us over Christmas and suffered a bad TIA (otherwise known as a mini-stroke) which brought on vascular dementia overnight. From being mentally alert she often could not recognise her own family. She initially went into hospital here in Bedford where the staff were caring but very overworked. The consultant also proved to be very bad at record keeping - my mum was given a blood transfusion but the reason for it was never recorded in her notes. She was transferred up to the North East, where she lives and the care she has received there has been exceptional. We saw her last weekend and the staff had not only washed her hair but styled it so that she looked really nice.
A couple of weeks after my Mum was transferred, my mother-in-law who is 83 came to stay. She has had Alzheimer's for some time but we were shocked at just how much she had deteriorated in the two months since we last saw her. My wife had to arrange for her to be admitted to a hospital in East Essex where she lives. Service there has been a marked contrast to that which my Mum has received. We often visited to find her dressed in someone else's clothes and her hair had not been washed in weeks. She then had a fall on Sunday evening (the staff noted that she was having difficulty in walking) and on Monday she was transferred to A&E (the geriatric unit where she is staying in on the same campus as the main hospital) where they found she had broken her femur - her left leg was an inch and a half shorter than her right!
Due to a bed shortage, she was transferred to a general surgical ward. However, no-one bothered to pass on information about her extensive medication list to the ward. She missed the operating list that day and on the next day after two days without medication, her blood pressure had gone through the roof and they couldn't operate. It took several days for it to improve and the Anaesthetist took a chance even though it was risky because any more delay and repair would have been impossible and she would have spent the rest of her life in a wheelchair. That Friday afternoon, she was transferred back to the geriatric unit but without any painkillers and they waited until Monday morning before getting any prescribed. They also managed to mislay her false teeth for two days so she couldn't eat properly.
Her treatment has been callous and uncaring - so different from that my Mum has received from units which seem to be staffed at a similar level. So if you are going to be ill, make sure it is in the NE if you want decent care.
We had arranged for both our mothers to go into care homes but due to medical complications which have arisen over the last two weeks, we now need to find Nursing homes so it is back to searching all over again. Unfortunately that scuppers our plans for the YD Farnes trip in June. In fact, we haven't even been in the water yet this year and I'm beginning to wonder whether we will manage any dives at all in 2007 given all that needs to be organised. A least we have St. Kilda planned for 2008 and can at least look forward to that.
