"Did their absolute best to provide good care"

At the beginning of the year my elderly Grandma was admitted to ED with delirium. She was in ward 102 for a week then transferred to Rosewell House. The whole team at Rosewell showed true compassionate care to my grandma, a woman with advancing combined alzheimer's/vascular dementia. They were so patient with her, respected her needs and the whole family felt at ease when she was there.

Unfortunately Grandma had fallen out of her bed and broken her femur after a month at Rosewell, which was absolutely not at all a fault of the team at Rosewell as grandma is still physically very strong, determined and still at the height of her delirium. The team called an ambulance and made grandma as comfortable as they could do until the paramedics arrived. Sadly the paramedics took around 24hours to arrive, leaving grandma with very minimal oral intake due to her being in a lot of pain. At this point it was not known the extent of her injury. 

Once in ED she was transferred up to the orthopaedic surgery ward and was vetted for emergency surgery the following day. This went very well, however the ward was so busy it did not seem equipped to deal with such an active dementia patient with a broken femur. The nursing team were great, but they did not have the time to give grandma as much care and attention she needed physically and mentally- as a nurse I know this feeling all too well. Grandma had fallen out of her bed in Ortho during her stay there, but thankfully she did not have any further injury. From this date she had a one to one support. Again the team were great, and did their absolute best to provide grandma good care in such a busy ward. The only problem we had was that when grandma fell out of her bed, the official NOK was not called until much later on, and another visitor was informed before them.

Grandma was eventually transferred to Morningfield House before she settled in her new care home. We could not say anything bad about this department - the whole team really understands the needs of the dementia patient and we found grandma was quite settled in this environment a lot of the time. For being such a busy department, the staff always gave Grandma compassionate care and attention. The student nurses seemed very happy there which to me is a sign of a well run department. They got involved and would always chat to the patients when their nursing tasks were completed. Grandma enjoys a chat and a cuddle and she seemed to respond well to the attention she received from the team.

 She has since been weight-bearing again, even on her bad leg, to transfer short distances with support, which at her age, is incredible. Morningfield team, you are providing person centred dementia care so well! Thank you!