General Chat

My friend's Dad, 92 years old and fit both mentally and physically, had an op for a knee replacement on the 21st April last - and would you believe he's still in hospital - the op was a success but they let him get sores on his heels and feet and until they heal he is unable to walk - it'll be about another two weeks before they heal

This should not have been allowed to happen - back in the day if you were confined to bed for any length of time you had the vulnerable parts of your body treated every night with surgical spirits and talcum powder to prevent such an occurrence

because of the lack of good nursing care he has taken up a bed which could have been used by several people by now and it must have cost the NHS thousands of pounds, apart from his discomfort

Fortunately he is in good spirits and was moved from the offending ward to one where the care is excellent

They just don't do things like that any more Ann :-( .
A friend's dad was in hospital terminally ill (waiting to be transferred home to die), and friend asked if he could be turned.
She was told, and I quote, 'we don't need to turn him, he's on a pressure mattress'.
Sometimes words fail me - nurses having degrees has done nothing for nursing care.

the awful thing is that people don't seem surprised about this poor treatment any more

Almost like they expect it - very sad

My friends m-in-law is bedridden and in a very posh nursing home at a cost of £1200 a week. She has ulcers from pressure sores !!!!!!!!!!!!

forgot to mention that they also allowed him to go to the toilet unattended the day after the op - he fell over in the toilet and badly damaged his shoulder, which is still causing problems

when he is finally discharged, his daughter is going to play merry hell and I can assure you, heads will roll - big time

I don't care what mattress they use pressure sores on heels appear very, very quickly and are extremely painful :-(

If you don't insist on a) being turned and b) having every part of you checked daily sores magically appear within hours of the last check.

I have every sympathy with him.

xx

as you know, my dil is a qualified nurse in elderly mentally ill - she works on the same site where Terry had his op - she popped in to see him during a rare break and was more than a little shocked to see that every member of nursing staff was on the reception desk - none were out on the ward with patients - this never happens on the EMI Unit

I hope that anyone who has a loved one in hospital on bed rest insists they are regularly checked for bed sores

I'M AT THE HOSPITAL FOR MORE SCANS ON MY SORES
TOMORROW MORNING THE DOCTOR IS NOT HAPPY I ASKED MY GP FOR A REFERAL,SO HES A BIT OFF WITH ME ,THE DISTRICT NURSES ARE THE SAME AS HE HAS TOLD ME TO HAVE SOFT DRESSING ,WHICH WILL MEAN I SWOP
CLINICS AND THEY DONT WASH LEGS AND I NEED IT BECAUSE OF SMELL.
I AM SO FED UP OF THE PAIN AND THE HEAT FROM THE LAYERS OF BANDAGES.

Hopefully they might have a different approach after you been to the hospital tomorrow. Hope they find the right treatment for you......it has been going on a while.

Anne

The worst thing that happened in nurses training was going to uni...not enough experience on the practical side.
I know the theory is important,but interaction with patients and compassion is so important and seems lacking.
A lot of staff nurses won't make beds but leave it to support staff.
Bring back matrons!

bring back matrons - oh yes!!!! and get rid of the men and women in suits who have no contact whatsoever with patients - far too many chiefs and not enough Indians

A lot of things are missed because in some hospitals the nurses do not help with washing patients. when I nursed washing patients gave you the opportunity to spot things, like signs of pressure sores to enable you to prevent them, It was a time when you could talk to the patient to find out how they were feeling and if there were any problems but that doesnt happen any more. Cleaning teeth doesnt happen so more and more patients are getting sores in their mouths. Catheter care doesnt seem to exist anymore.

The NHS is a mess. Teaching nurses more about the conditions is great but they do need to spend more time on the wards learning basic nursing care. I can remember one degree nurse during her training ( her first ward) saying she would not work with me as I was only a EN. She forgot that I had twenty years experience so knew a bit more about nursing than she did.

Jane.....same thing happened to my daughter.
A few years ago She got to gd 3 NVQ ,worked in a hospital and decided to go to uni to study further .
She had one placement of 3 weeks in a year and had to write a 2500 word report on it.
I read it and thought it was really good.
She didn't pass as it was descriptive and not reflective.
What that has to do with nursing I don't know.In fact my late OH went to the Royal College of Nursing as he was disgusted and they said that nurses have to know almost as much as doctors n research etc.!!Unbelievable!!
She ended up back in hospital as a senior support worker and had junior nurses attached to her hip as they knew very little.
No wonder,since the practical in uni was so little except for learning how to inject an orange!

Couldn't agree more Brenda. eldest stuck Project 2000 for 18 months. She was not allowed to interpret any symptoms, thereby learning, only regurgitate what text books told her was 'the correct approach'.

She was attending a hospital in West Wales on a residential learning placement in neonatal care. When she asked if she could comfort a distressed little one she was told absolutely not. That would set an unwanted precedent and parents would expect their child to be more than just fed, watered and changed.

It was all learning by rote from text books.

and they call it progress :-S

A senior consultant at one of Britain’s leading private hospitals has been charged with manslaughter after a patient died following a routine knee operation.

David Sellu, 65, a consultant surgeon at the Clementine Churchill Hospital in Harrow, is also accused of committing perjury at an inquest into the death of James Joseph Hughes, 66.

Mr Hughes flew from his home in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, for knee surgery in February 2010 but died a week later when complications were not treated in time.

The inquest heard he had suffered a tear to his bowel which was not identified until it had become septic, triggering a fatal heart attack.

The coroner was told that when Mr Hughes complained of stomach pains after the operation, vital blood tests were put off to give him a “peaceful night”.

Mr Sellu told the inquest the surgery was then delayed further because he could not find a “willing” anaesthetist.

By the time Mr Hughes was operated on, Mr Sellu admitted his chances of survival were “not high”. He died the following day.

Father-of-four Mr Sellu, who was a senior lecturer in surgery at Imperial College from 1993 to 2000 and is an associate professor at a Florida university, was charged with manslaughter after attending Harrow police station by appointment. He is to appear before Hendon magistrates on August 13.

The Churchill is one of 15 hospitals operated by BMI healthcare in London and has 141 beds making it one of the largest privately-run clinics in the country.

Mr Hughes’s family discovered another patient had died at the Churchill in almost identical circumstances two years earlier in a case involving a different doctor.

His son James said: “We were shocked to discover this identical case. They said in that report that they had put in place new working practices to make sure the same thing couldn’t happen again.”

A spokesman for BMI Healthcare said: “We note the decision to charge Mr Sellu. The team at the hospital were deeply saddened by Mr Hughes’ death and our thoughts and our sympathies continue to be with his family".

The surgeon was jailed for 30 months after being found guilty of manslaughter.
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(This piece was copied from the London Evening Standard. The deceased was my partner's brother.)

shocking - absolutely shocking

The man in the next bed to my friend's Dad also had a knee replacement op on the same day - just happened I also knew this man - he was 96 years old but in fine fettle and had had the other knee done a few months back - he also developed bed sores on his feet, deteriorated rapidly and died a week later

It is a national disgrace the way the elderly and vulnerable are suffering through lack of compassion.

It makes my blood boil whenever I see a vulnerable person treated badly or ignored.You don't need a degree to nurse, just compassion, bags of common sense and the ability to listen and learn from a qualified senior nurse alongside the patients themselves.

During Mum's illness, she was treated really well in the nursing and care homes, but sadly neglected by our 2 local hospitals.................she had no way of communicating her needs, even if she had the ability to know what those needs were. I had to be there with her for most of the time just to make sure she was fed and had fluids.

The NHS in it's haste to save money and meet targets is actually costing more money y not meeting the basic needs of so many who have no voice.........so sad and unecessary :-( :-(

It still makes me feel ill thinking about how my Mum's partner was treated in hospital. He died at the end of 2012 and was in hospital for much of that year. Existing conditions were ignored, he wasn't offered bathing facilities for days and was shoved in a ward, dressed in a blood-covered gown (after an emergency transfusion) to breathe his last. Disgusted.