Why is it that in Nottingham mental health inpatient settings the most common catch phrase seems to be “we haven’t got enough staff to...”.
For a relative who was in a rehabilitation unit, staff often said that they didn’t have the staff to accompany him to the shop, assist with him renewing his bus pass, arrange care plan meetings or manage difficult behaviour etc, etc.
And so the relative was transferred to an acute mental health setting, with apparently a higher level of staff. Except at the weekends there are no consultants and nobody to assess any necessary changes in treatment.
The relative didn’t improve and the staff said they were too busy to keep the family informed and they said that they didn’t have the staff to manage difficult behaviour.
The relative was moved again within days, this time to an “intensive” unit with fewer patients and more staff. The family were not informed and guess what? there still aren’t enough staff to update the family and the relative still hasn’t seen a doctor. The unit our relative originally came from said they can’t even get an update, because of lack of available staff despite a number of attempts.
The common practice seems to be to get students to fob off enquiries with “ring back later” and “I am just a student” and in the meantime our relative is passing through the mental health system, being moved from “pillar to post” without any clear plan and without involving close family and carers.
Somebody recently said that the mental health system is like a lobster pot.....easy to get into but impossible to get out of! How right they were. Is it really a staffing issue? I don’t know the answer to that, but somewhere along the line someone needs to look at what is going on in mental health inpatient services in Nottingham.
"Lack of staff in the lobster pot?"
About: Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust / Adult mental health (inpatient) Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust Adult mental health (inpatient) NG3 6AA
Posted by it'salwaystherighttimetodotherightthing (as ),
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Update posted by it'salwaystherighttimetodotherightthing (a relative) 10 years ago