"Hospital Transport resulting in Neglect"

My client suffers with advanced MS and because of this needs to access the NHS Transport to attend her appointments. In April she was admitted to hospital with a break in their leg, resulting in a long admittance. On discharge she was assessed and due to the leg brace and Moving & Handling issues, it was advised that she was to stay in bed.

She is very frustrated at the length of time she has been made to remain bed bound due to failures in the NHS Transport department.

They received a letter asking her to attend an X-Ray to get her leg brace removed. This was a very exciting day for her as it possibly meant she would be allowed to transfer in her chair again.

The transport was booked in on time using the number on the letter but sadly the driver failed to turn up. It did emerge that the driver did attend eventually that day, but it was after the appointment time and therefore she missed this appointment, and it was rescheduled for June. She was incredibly distressed at the prospect of another month in bed.

The appointment was rearranged for June and once again, everything was planned and booked in to ensure that she could attend. Once again, the driver failed to attend on time to collect her, and she was forced to remain bed bound and her appointment was to be rearranged. Luckily the 3rd time the driver did arrive on time and she made it to her appointment.

Since having the leg brace removed the OT's have assessed her mobility and agreed that she is still not safe to use the current chair that she has and therefore lots of work has taken place to arrange for her to have a wheelchair assessment for a specialist tilt chair.

Recently, July, she was up very early with the carers going to help her earlier than normal to get her ready for this appointment which I am sure you can appreciate after the last 4 months stuck in bed, she was very much looking forward to but sadly once again the Transport failed to turn up.

They have called the hospital who have now informed her that she will have to rearrange, and the next appointment is for the end of July. She then called me in a distressed state. Her words -That's another month of me being stuck in this bed-

This lady will have been forced to remain in her bed for 4 months if the next appointment does actually go ahead. If there is another transport failure it could be longer.

I am sure you can appreciate that this is having a very serious effect on her mental and physical well-being. She will be losing muscle each and every day she remains in this bed, and she is feeling very low in mood due to this situation. She is now experiencing issues with skin integrity which we are trying monitor and prevent.

She is requesting that something is done about this, she is incredibly upset with the failures that have taken place and feels neglected.