A&E good but acute frailty unit terrifying
My 89-year-old mother was admitted to Royal Preston accident and emergency on Wednesday evening, following a fall at a residential care facility at 6:30 pm. The paramedics arrived around 8:30 pm and she was taken to the hospital were following a wait outside. She was admitted to the A&E department shortly after 10:30 pm. We contacted the department by telephone and were kept informed. Due to problems with the CT Scanner, my mother was scanned in the morning, and we received a phone call from the A&E department which was reassuring. They were happy for us to visit Mum in the A&E department, and went to see her. Mum was in good spirits. The doctor treating Mum was very helpful and informative and said that she would be checked out by the frailty team and it was hoped that after that Mum would be able to return to her care facility that night. She explained that the frailty team worked closely with local care providers and would liaise with them. Our next communication was around 2:30 in the afternoon, A nurse from the frailty team to called me to gather information. We spoke for around 15 minutes and she promised to call me once she had seen Mum. No-one called us or Mum’s care provider back. At 7:30pm, my sister rang the hospital and was told Mum had been admitted to the acute frailty ward overnight. Only basic information was available from the nurse. We called back in the morning as requested but were told no information would be available till noon. We rang back at noon, and were told Mum was still being investigated. We were told a doctor would call us back, but no doctor ever did. A pharmaceutical technician rang for information on Mums medication and was the first member of staff to call Mum’s care provider. This was followed shortly by a physio who said checks were complete and Mum would be returned to her care provider if that was OK. This was 14:34 according to my call log. We agreed, and we understand that the care provider was also told. However, at 6:05, we were called again, told Mum was ready to leave but no transport was available until the morning. We said we would come and get Mum. As agreed, we arrived at 7pm. We found a ward with all staff in the entrance area, assume this was during hand over. When we asked for mum one of the nurses waved down the ward and said that she was in the final Bay. We found mum sitting in a chair dressed only in hospital gown and slippers with a plastic bag containing a possessions. One of the nurses had followed us down and informed us that was all they had for mum and shrugged when we asked if they expect us to take our 89 year old mother home in such flimsy clothing. My sister sensing that little help was available and feeling that she might become angry absented herself and went in search for wheelchair. I continued to plead with the nurses and eventually they provided some tracksuit bottoms for Mum. Having dressed Mum in the tracksuit bottoms my sister returned with the wheelchair. They did help Mum into the wheelchair but left us to it after that. On our journey out to the will to the entrance we received no help and mum told us that she had been in the chair for hours and when she had requested to visit the toilet the staff had refused to help. My mother is physically frail but he's mentally competent and it was clear from my conversation at 6:05, that mum had been in the chair for considerable time before that. Mum's knees are very stiff, and getting her into our car was difficult, painful for mum and distressing for us. We were grateful that a passing ambulance man provided some assistance. The journey back to Mum’s care facility was distressing for all of us my mum was most concerned about having an accident. During our visit to the hospital, the care received in A&E was very good. After that communication was very poor and not as promised. There was no serious attempt at collaboration with the care home. The nursing care witnessed in the acute frailty unit where many of the hospitals most frail patients are located did not in my opinion meet either basic nursing care standards or NHS care standards. Since Friday I have taken time to research the experiences of other people whose loved ones have been in this ward. They report similar experiences.