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Care Opinion

Inpatient stay

Posted By violetcs46

"Inpatient stay"

About: Borders General Hospital / Department of Medicine for Elderly

(as a service user),

An elderly friend was cared for in ward 14 for almost 2 weeks, the care they received was excellent. One of the down sides of being an inpatient in their 90's was that she was automatically admitted to DME.  This left them surrounded by some patients who had altered mental capacity, which they found extremely distressing it brought back memories of her late husband and she felt she couldn’t relax because she was worried about the other patients and what they might do. I don’t see a solution as such, but thought it might bring to attention the thoughts not only her own but of others who may find themselves in a similar situation.

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Responses

Response from Sarah Horan, Director of Nursing, Midwifery & Allied Health Professionals, NHS Borders 2 years ago
We are preparing to make a change
Sarah Horan
Director of Nursing, Midwifery & Allied Health Professionals,
NHS Borders

Submitted on 17/06/2021 at 12:43
Published on Care Opinion on 18/06/2021 at 09:52

Dear violetcs46

Thank you for taking the time to send us this feedback about your friend, I am delighted to hear that they received excellent care by the team in ward 14 and will make sure that the team know about this, it matters very much to them.

I am sorry that this experience brought back upsetting memories, your friend no doubt cared for her husband and felt the connection with others who appeared to have similar challenge's.

The team in our Department of Medicine for the Elderly are all specialists in the care of older adults and are attuned to their specific needs whilst they require to be in a hospital setting, that said we are in the process of having a range of alternate ways to provide care closer or at home to avoid admissions where possible, the pandemic has delayed this work but we are back onto it now as its clearly the right thing to do.

I acknowledge that the environment isn't always ideal hence why the focus is on not admitting elderly patients to avoid what your friend experienced.

I hope this is helpful to you, and gives you some assurance that we are working towards changes.

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