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"I am not medically trained"

About: North Devon District Hospital / Acute Hospital at Home

(as a carer),

My wife was admitted to hospital with a lung infection. She has COPD.

Sent home a week later under AHAH .Two phone calls on that day, the next day one call, then no call at all, then just one call the day after that. I asked why no call on the second day and was told it was due to not having blood results.

I became concerned about her condition phoned AHAH and was told to bring her in - phoned ambulance taken to A&E in the afternoon, discharged by 8pm.

While in hospital my wife was asked what i was like she said he's very good - meaning I was capable of looking after her. No one talked to me to see if it was alright with me that I had now become her carer, or to ask how were things at home regarding any problems.

In the patient information they say you will be given the same treatment at home that you would have in hospital - I think this is misleading in my opinion. I am not medically trained and progress and problems can be sorted immediately in hospital. I have looked at figures which state that it costs more per day at home than in hospital bed, and that recovery is longer at home than in hospital.

I can see how some patients would benefit from this approach, but my wife I feel was not one of them. AHAH in this form has been going for two years has had problems. I'm fully aware of the problems in the NHS and appreciate the difficulties the staff work under.

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Responses

Response from Patient Feedback Lead, Patient Experience Team, Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust 6 months ago
Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Submitted on 17/10/2024 at 11:48
Published on Care Opinion at 11:48


I have forwarded your feedback to Jenny Gavin, our AHAH Ward Manager for Northern Services and she has asked that I convey the response below to you:

Dear Quebecbh74

Thank you for taking the time to leave feedback. I am sorry to hear that your wife has recently been unwell and that you did not feel supported whilst she was an AHAH patient. This is the opposite of what we aim to achieve and I sincerely apologise that this has happened.

You mention that we did not ask your consent for you to care for your wife at home, this should not have happened. If a relative is needing to support our AHAH patients in order to provide safe and efficient care at home, gaining consent from the relative is part of our assessment process. However, it is evident that this did not happen on this occasion and it has a negative impact on your experience with AHAH. Again, I can only apologise to you and your wife for this.

With regards to the statistics you mention, NHS England’s research recognises that there are huge benefits for patients being monitored from home instead of in hospital. These include reduced infection risk, less deconditioning, faster recovery and overall more patient control over their health and well-being. There are also financial benefits and it reduces pressure on the NHS by decreasing a patients number of bed days in hospital. Please see attached a link to this information here.

That said, the above will only be of benefit to patients and relatives if you feel confident in the process and service offered. Due to the anonymous nature of Care Opinion I cannot comment on what went wrong specifically, however if you would like to contact me via jenny.gavin@nhs.net I would welcome the opportunity to look into your feedback further to prevent this happening again in future. Please quote Care Opinion story 1271455 and include your contact details and I will arrange to call you.

I understand if you have chosen Care Opinion as a feedback route to remain anonymous and do not wish to contact me. If this is the case, please be assured that I will remind all of the team of the importance of relative consent at our team meeting.

I hope your wife is now recovering well and once again I thank you for your feedback.

Kind regards

Jenny

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