"Patient Care and Caring."

My mum suffered from COPD and in June 2017 we were advised it was terminal. Mum fought hard to manage her illness, even with aggravating factors and other aspects of ill health and beginnings of organ failure. She was so determined and positive in her outlook and I feel that’s why she survived until February 2024. 

In the final year or two of my mum’s life she had multiple admissions to Wishaw Hospital, where it reached the point she was an inpatient more than she was at home. Throughout every crisis point where I could no longer help to support and look after mum at home and had to call for help, the Ambulance Service staff were incredible, despite the fact I had to call them out every other week. Did my mum have to spend hours in the back of an ambulance outside Wishaw? Yes she did, like so many others and it was frustrating and frightening to feel helpless. The pressures on the system need action to prevent this backlog which puts lives at risk. The Drs and Nurses in A&E were amazing, kind and patient and always trying their utmost to give my mum the best chance at life. They were also so kind to me every time I sat at her side. Allowing me to stay for hours because after years of attendance they knew us and oftentimes told me to prepare to say goodbye but being supportive and kind whilst still trying to save her. 

I had some negative experiences when mum was on a general respiratory ward but I believe that was simply down to staffing levels. Not enough Drs and nurses, infrequent checks where I would identify myself (simply through caring experience) that she was deteriorating and have to ask for help because it hadn’t been noticed. However when I did alert staff and she was moved, each time to HDU, the efforts made by every single person to revive her, support her, bring her back from the edge and support me were tremendous. I suppose the point is I shouldn’t have had to find my mum barely conscious and unresponsive on a busy ward  but I did, more than once. Did it make me angry? Yes, absolutely, because I was terrified of losing mum, but I didn’t blame anyone working there. I blamed the system. 

When my mum was admitted for the last time, her consultants and Drs spoke with me. We discussed options and what else could be done, even though it was limited. Mum and I were fully aware of what was happening, even if neither of us wanted to accept it and we were helped through that entire horrendous time in HDU by medical/nursing staff, auxiliary staff, domestic staff, chaplaincy team. I feel that these people deserve support not criticism. In the last few hours of mum's life, the team in HDU supported mum and I, they facilitated family visits to say goodbye, they discreetly cared for her and monitored her progress as she was slowly leaving us. That discreet care extended to immediate family and when the staff on the ward were finishing shift they came to say goodbye to mum and were the most respectful, genuine, kind and caring people who are most definitely in the right profession. I will never be able to thank them enough and as I said at the time, the entire team in HDU didn't just care for mum, they cared about her. She mattered and in the midst of all that grief, it made the difference. Maybe they did that with every patient, I don’t think I’m naive and actually I don’t care, they were kind and caring and respectful and that’s all I could ever ask. 

I have plenty of negative experiences and like everyone else can have a good old moan about the NHS. But please never blame the individuals trying to shore up a system that is supposed to care for folk but is creaking at the seams. It is clear the NHS in general and in particular the Hospital are under strain, understaffed and overwhelmed. The infrastructure needed and support required just doesn’t seem to be there. I think it should be the number one priority for national funding and investment in its people, structures, services. After all, if we are completely honest, where would any of us be without it.