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Mum’s stay in hospital

Posted By Feeb

"Mum’s stay in hospital"

About: Dumfries & Galloway Royal Infirmary / General Medicine

(as a relative),

Mum had severe back pain and couldn’t move much following a suspected fall. GP requested paramedics who decided to take her for X-rays at Dumfries Hospital.

She was admitted and we told the staff by phone ( due to CoVid we could not go with her) that Mum has cognitive impairment and that they must tell us any news or information directly by telephone and not rely on Mum to remember. We repeated this request at each of 8 calls over two days.

Mum was discharged with no information given to us and we discovered at home that she had two fractured vertebrae! She had travelled home by private car, with a sealed letter and at no point were we informed despite asking for updates or a conversation with the ward doctor. The GP had to organise a hospital bed, nurses and carers urgently and the poor discharge was considered ‘ unsafe’. It caused tremendous suffering to my Mum in terms of unnecessary pain and distress and to Us in terms of worry and distress.

The pandemic is not a reason to abandon basic communication skills.

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Responses

Response from Alexis Brain, Patient Experience and Safety Manager, Patient Experience, NHS Dumfries and Galloway 3 years ago
Alexis Brain
Patient Experience and Safety Manager, Patient Experience,
NHS Dumfries and Galloway

Submitted on 13/07/2020 at 11:06
Published on Care Opinion at 13:56


Dear Feeb.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your story via Care Opinion. Firstly let me say how disappointed I am to hear of the poor experience your mum and indeed your family have experienced while in the care of NHS Dumfries & Galloway.

I am so sorry that you were not contacted by the clinical team in order to be given information regarding your mum's condition and to discuss plans for care and for discharge. I can only imagine how frustrating and upsetting this must have been considering that you had several conversations with staff in which you asked that they contact you directly with any updates.

To discover that your mum had been discharged home without any prior notification must have been extremely distressing, and then to discover her diagnosis in a discharge letter when you had had no communication from the clinical team must have been unimaginably worrying.

It is extremely concerning to me that your mum was discharged without your involvement, particularly when it was considered an unsafe discharge by you and your GP. I would like to offer my sincere apology on behalf of NHS Dumfries & Galloway for the complete lack of communication and for the added pain, worry and distress caused to your mum and your family.

I would very much like to reach out to you to discuss further and gather some more information around the situation. If you feel that you would like to have further discussion please contact our Patient Experience Team either by telephone on 01387 241690 or by email on dumf-uhb.dgpatientexperience@nhs.net.

Kind regards

Alexis

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