"Poor care our Mum received"

My mum was admitted to hospital in January this year. She’d felt unwell with vomiting & diarrhoea for a month but didn’t attend her surgery as getting an appointment is very difficult. She eventually did see the practice nurse who took bloods & contacted her that same afternoon.....her egfr was dangerously low (10) & she was instructed to go to hospital immediately.

She was advised to go to the Combined Assessment Unit rather that A&E. The unit was very busy & there were no beds for her. She was cannulated & left on a trolley until she was reviewed at around 6 in the morning (she’d gone in at 7pm the previous night) Surely with her egfr so low, & being advised to go ‘straight to hospital’ by the practice nurse, she required fluids immediately.......not 11 hours after going in?

She was given a single room in CAU and advised she would be transferred to the renal unit when a bed became available. My sister & I attended with our dad the next day. My mum looked really poorly, & the catheter she had in was draining very little amounts. It was clear the ward was busy .....most people we tried to ask about mums plan of care replied with she’s not my patient.

That night my mum phoned my sister, distressed as no one would answer her buzzer, her cot side had been put up & she couldn’t get to the toilet. She already found it difficult to hold the catheter bag & manoeuvre the drip stand to get to the toilet, without the added barrier of a cot side. She was distressed at this point.....she was still having frequent episodes of diarrhoea & earlier that day hadn’t managed to reach the toilet in time. My sister phoned the ward explaining she needed help. The nurse (a bank nurse we later discovered) then went into my mums room & scolded her, telling her that she didn't need to go to the toilet as she had a catheter in, then pushed my mums torso back on to the bed. Was she completely clueless as to why my mum was there?

My mum felt frightened of this nurse after this encounter. After mum said she needed to open her bowels, the nurse finally put the cot side down & let her use the toilet. My sister & I visited the next day, mum was upset, telling us that after my sister had phoned, a nurse or auxiliary (she couldn’t be sure who) went into her room & angrily asked her did you phone your family?! We’ve got very sick people to look after in here! We’ll answer the buzzer when we can, don’t bother your family again.

How dare anyone tell my mum not to contact us!

The next day my sister, my dad & I arrived at 2pm. Mums toilet was filthy, & had 4 bed pans containing diarrhoea in them (she was on fluid balance & it was to be measured). She was sitting in a chair & we could see the bed sheets were slightly soiled. My sister asked if the toilet could be cleaned & the bed changed, which they duly were. We were grateful to the cleaners & the nurse who changed the bed. We asked all 3 if they could do something about the bed pans in the bathroom, they all said they’d tell mums own nurse.

2 hours later i asked a nurse at the desk if the bed pans could be removed, she looked up from note writing & said I don’t work here. I was astonished at how unhelpful people were. I understand everyone is very busy, but I felt that was just rude.

Everyone we’d asked that day to explain what the plan was for mum (& was she going to renal as was discussed previously) said sorry I’m not your mums nurse. The occasional helpful one said I’ll try to find her. We didn’t actually see mums nurse the entire day.

We resorted to desperate measures, asking the staff member who brought in dinner if they could try & find someone to remove the bed pans. This staff member said they would try to find someone to do it, but as with all the other times, no one came. In the 3 hours we’d been there, we’d helped mum up to the toilet at least 8 times. Not wanting to fill the entire toilet floor with bed pans of diarrhoea, she’d just gone in the actual toilet. A lot of fluid not measured.

My sister went to the desk when she saw a doctor. Again, the doctor wasn’t my mums doctor, but this doctor helpfully brought in mums notes & discussed her care plan with us. We were so grateful to them for filling us in. We also asked this doctor if they could help us identify mums nurse to get rid of the bed pans (6th person we’ve now asked) & explained how upset we were that they’d been in there all day & mums output was being correctly measured. The doctor said they would get the charge nurse to speak to us. 

About an hour later, a senior member of staff came in the room, arms folded appearing ready for battle. Their opening to my sister & I was Hi, I hear you have some complaints. Who are you.

I ask who they were, which seemed to displease this staff member & this set the tone for the discussion. I felt it was completely rude and unprofessional to not introduce themselves to us. My sister & I are both health professionals, I’m certain one of the first things I learnt was to introduce yourself and explain your position at the earliest opportunity.  

We explained our concerns.....mainly the way my mum was treated by the staff on her first night in the unit & the failure of her nurse that day to monitor her output. This staff member was defensive during the whole conversation and informed us they had no real control over bank nurses, and that our mum's nurse today has been very busy with an extremely sick patients. This staff member then brought out a notepad & said, i see you’ve also complained about the bed not being changed & the toilet not being cleaned., and informed us our mums nurse offered to change the bed in the morning & that our mum declined. And that the toilets are cleaned on a back shift, not before. We felt this senior staff member was trying to insinuate we had a long list of complaints & it felt like they liked those ones because they had answers for us.

I informed this staff member again that we absolutely weren’t complaining about those things, we asked for the toilet to be cleaned & the bed to be changed which they were, timeously. We received no response regarding the bed pans left in the toilet all day other than the nurse was busy with another very sick patient. What about my mum?? Wasn’t she sick enough to warrant minimum standard of care for her condition......fluid balance?? My sister & I were astounded that we were not once offered concern or an apology, especially for the way my mum was spoken to after phoning her family for help as she didn’t know what else to do.

My mum never did get transferred to renal. There was never a bed available. She stayed on CAU for 6 days. I’m pleased to say that after the first 3 day’s the care improved & she was shown kindness from many nurses. Nevertheless, what sticks in our minds is the appalling treatment from night shift staff on her 2nd night & the indifference shown by the senior staff member when we raised our concerns.