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my mothers experience.

Posted By maxinem

"my mothers experience."

About: Royal Alexandra Hospital / Trauma & orthopaedics (wards 21-23)

(as a relative),

My mother has bursitis, and had some discomfort when walking, she came to the practice for medical attention. she was then referred to physiotherapy, the following day she could not walk.

This all happened several months ago, she has been in and out of hospital a few times since, I have been calling the practice on a regular basis as my mother is in constant pain, cannot sleep and is generally exhausted.

We are aware that the GPs are limited to the medication that can be prescribed due to my mothers kidney transplant, however in this day and age, it beggars belief that an elderly lady should be left to basically rot in her bed with no aftercare provisions in place.

When my mother came home from Royal Alexandra hospital she had a bedsore which I bandaged as best I could but I have no medical training so can only hope for the best, no doctor has suggested a district nurse and I have no idea who to contact.

When I called the practice on Monday, a doctor came out, her opening gambit was to say something like you again, almost every day.

My mother lost the use of her left hand on Saturday ( she is left handed ) so I did think it was worth a doctor examining this, but I was left feeling like a time waster.

I went to see my local MP, Cathy McEwan, this morning to see if I could find support elsewhere and I've been directed to the council. I will be asking for their own occupational therapist to visit and perhaps someone will agree to the suggestion of a walk in shower as my mother cannot possibly get in to the shower as is and I have been left to wash and dress her, I have two young children and cannot be on hand as much as I would like, therefore I'm sure you can appreciate the stress we are all under.

My other big concern is that my mum is losing her confidence and is extremely low in spirits, perhaps even depressed. I feel that we have been left to simply get on with it and there appears to be no support from the practice which is very disappointing, is it because my mother is "past it", not worth the bother?

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Responses

Response from Lorna Fairlie, Patient Experience, Public Involvement Project Manager, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde 8 years ago
Lorna Fairlie
Patient Experience, Public Involvement Project Manager,
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

I work in a small team in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde which seeks to involve patients and carers in the work of the NHS. The biggest part of my role is in managing feedback projects across the Board area, one of which is Patient Opinion. It is my job to give our patients and carers the opportunity to give us feedback, and to make sure that this is passed to the right people to help us improve the services we provide.

Submitted on 29/07/2015 at 14:57
Published on Care Opinion at 15:27

Dear maxinem,

I am really sad to read about your Mother's experience and the affect that her physical issues are now having on her emotionally, as well as the obvious impact this is having on you. I am really sorry that you both have not found the support you need forthcoming and that information on follow up care has been difficult to come by. I can completely appreciate the stress this will put on you all as a family.

There are a number of elements of care that you mention here, and while I am limited in the information I can give you about some of these - for example, the care provided by the Council - I would like to help in some way.

First of all, I would strongly suggest contacting your Mother's GP practice and letting them know about the issues you are experiencing, as you have detailed here. The Practice Manager is responsible for the day to day running of the practice as well as taking on board feedback from patients and carers and responding to complaints. If you do not feel comfortable contacting the Practice directly, I would be happy to do so for you - just get in touch with me on lorna.gray@ggc.scot.nhs.uk with some more information and I can take this forward with you.

Similarly, it would be helpful if you could get in touch to share a bit more of your Mother's personal information. My colleague Dr Ian Reeves has read your story and is keen to see if he can help in signposting you to the most appropriate support at this stage. Again, please get in touch with me on the email above if you think this would be helpful. While we might not be able to provide all of the answers at this stage, hopefully together we can start towards a more positive situation.

I hope to hear from you soon,

Best Wishes,

Lorna

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