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Different rules on different wards & good activities in hosp...

Posted By triangulumsn93

"Different rules on different wards & good activities in hospice"

About: Forth Valley Royal Hospital Strathcarron Hospice / Day Care Service

(as the patient),

I have been in to Larbert Hospital 5 times since November 2017, the last time was around 3 weeks ago. 

In November I had a cardiac arrest, I was taken into hospital following CPR during which I had a few broken ribs. I was told this was due to my age, I'm in my eighties and that it may take a long time for the ribs to heal. in the mean time they are quite painful, especially when I get a chest infection, which has landed me in hospital for the last four times. When I was in hospital  following the cardiac arrest and broken ribs I was in severe pain for which they gave me morphine. However morphine does not work for me, I kept telling them this but no one would listen. Eventually, after a week of constant pain I managed to speak to a consultant who actually listened and prescribed different pain killers which actually gave me relief. Why did it have to take so long?

On the last four occasions I have been in hospital because of chest infections to which I am prone as my immune system is low. Sometimes I am admitted to one ward but then moved to another. Most of the moves from one ward to another take place at night, I'm woken up to be moved. Why can't the move be during the day when sleep is not disturbed?

Also all the wards seem to have different rules. It does not make sense to me. For example if I need a chair, sometimes heavy, next to the bed moved so that it's easier for me to get in and out bed on one ward any of the staff are happy to help. But on another ward I'm told 'it's not my job'. On one ward auxiliary nurses can take blood pressure, on another only the regular nursing  staff can do this. It's confusing and frustrating.

I found out about Care Opinion at the Strathcarron Hospice where I go one day a week. I was quite surprised when they asked me if I'd like to go each week, just one day, I thought hospices were for when you have a terminal illness. At Strathcarron it's different, they have quite a lot of people, like me, who just come once a week, its really good to do different activities and meet different people. I'm going there today and looking forward to it.

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Responses

Response from Marjory Mackay, Director of Nursing, Strathcarron Hospice 5 years ago
Marjory Mackay
Director of Nursing,
Strathcarron Hospice

Submitted on 07/06/2018 at 12:16
Published on Care Opinion at 14:52

picture of Marjory Mackay

Thank you very much for telling your story about Strathcarron Hospice. It is good to hear about the benefits that you are experiencing from the Day Care community and the range of activities available. Hopefully this is helping you to live with and manage the effects of your illness.

Many people share your surprise about what hospice care has to offer. Cicely Saunders, the founder of the hospice movement described hospice care as “doing all we can not only to help you die peacefully but also to live until you die.” I am glad that through your feedback you have helped us share that important message.

Thank you once again,

Marjory

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Response from Catherine Labinjoh, Consultant Cardiologist & Clinical Lead for Cardiology, Cardiology, NHS Forth Valley 5 years ago
Catherine Labinjoh
Consultant Cardiologist & Clinical Lead for Cardiology, Cardiology,
NHS Forth Valley

Hospital doctor, specialising in Heart Disease

Submitted on 07/06/2018 at 19:41
Published on Care Opinion at 21:04

picture of Catherine Labinjoh

As one of the cardiologists I was really sorry to hear about your cardiac arrest and the problem you had with pain in your ribs afterwards. It's clear that we didn't do as well as we should have with your pain control. It's quite typical for more than one kind of painkiller to be needed in this situation and sometimes additional treatments too. When you let us know the morphine wasn't working we should have tried something different sooner than we did. I am really sorry we didn't listen and respond better but I am grateful for your feedback so we can try to make sure this doesn't happen again.

It sounds as though your time on the wards has been frustrating and we can all learn something from hearing what it's like to be a patient and have to cope with different rules in different places. It's hard to comment more without knowing which wards are involved but I do know that we have a hospital policy which recommends that patients are not disturbed by moves at night so once again, I am really sorry you have been affected by this.

I am delighted you have had such a positive experience at Strathcarron who support a lot of people in the manner you describe and have such a lot to offer.

I am going to alert my colleagues in patient flow to what you have told me about your moves around the hospital and try to understand why this happened. I am going to speak with my colleagues in the acute pain team to see if we can find a way to spread the word about the importance of pain control and checking with the patient if it's effective or not and thinking of different ways of controlling pain in your situation. I will let you know what they say about that.

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