"Care of my partner"

My partner had to fight for nearly a year and a half to receive the basics of the equipment and daily care he needs from the staff nurses at Hamewith Lodge. He has little use of his hands due to his condition and is prone to coughing fits - it took Hamewith Lodge over a year to provide him with a nurse call buzzer system he could access with any ease. Even after the involvement of my partners social workers and the care inspectorate at the start of 2017 - my partner had to wait until the summer until he received his new buzzer system.

As regards my partners daily care, the staff at Hamewith Lodge took a year and a half to offer my partner his 'ambubag' with any regularity - a medical device his neurologist tells him to use twice daily in order to help him cough and keep his lungs clear. The situation was the same with cleaning and flushing his peg site - he has a peg tube fitted in anticipation of when his illness no longer allows him to eat. Despite even the care inspectorate becoming involved in this issue - he was still not offered help to use his ambubag every day. The Care Inspectorate upheld our complaint on this issue (as well as understaffing) this month.

Having to raise these issues with the Care Inspectorate and the Dept of Social Work has caused both myself and my partner considerable stress that we did not need given my partners increasing health problems. There seems to have been an attitude of 'attack is the best form of defence'. A senior member of staff responded to my partners complaints calling his room 'ridiculous and like a bed-sit' - as it is home to several of my partners daughters toys for when she visits him. We would have expected more of an approach where management worked with my partner to try to resolve his issues. We are absolutely appalled at how my partner has been treated and the nursing home's attitude towards it. At one point my partner was asked, in relation to the lack of provision of his daily care (ambubag and flush), did he expect staff nurses to be supervised every day to make sure they give him his ambubag? (this conversation was in the presence of 2 social workers). We explained that yes - given the problem has gone unresolved for several months, this is exactly what we would expect her to do.

Outside my partners door is a promotional poster for HC-One - the company who own Hamewith Lodge; it states 'Kindness makes everyone feel at home'.  How my partner has been treated in this nursing home (we do not include the carers in this - they do their best in what we think are chronically understaffed conditions) which seems to us to fall far short of HC-One's statement.