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"Concerned about a lack of care"

About: The Ulster Hospital / Emergency Department The Ulster Hospital / Older people's healthcare

(as a relative),

It is with regret that I have to write this down and share it.

My dad took ill at the end of august and was taken to hospital. Under the covid conditions he was on his own at 95 years old in A&E for over 16 hours to get a bed. I understand times are difficult. But he was then admitted to a ward in the Ulster for the next 6 weeks. Through this time I visited every day for one hour. I was extremely concerned at the lack of care he received. He went in being able to walk with a rotator and live independently. He was fitted with a pacemaker which was very successful. I was told he would be got out of bed the next day and would receive physio. This was not done. He deteriorated rapidly to the stage that I was also told he was incontinent! He wasn't before he went in.

I found it irritating to see nurses sitting on desks at the station on their mobile phones and I felt like my dad wasn't cared for. He has since come home and is a lot better walking and not incontinent.

Difficult to try and find a doctor to talk too as well. They were never available and no-one seemed to know about my dads condition. I saw so many patients go in and after a few days were a lot worse I thought hospital was supposed to make better not worse!!

Only one nurse made an effort to talk to me. She was great.

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Responses

Response from Jennifer Nicholson, Lead Nurse - Emergency Care, Emergency Medicine - A&E, South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust 2 years ago
Jennifer Nicholson
Lead Nurse - Emergency Care, Emergency Medicine - A&E,
South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust
Submitted on 29/10/2021 at 17:49
Published on Care Opinion at 17:49


Hi Millimeterky36

I am sorry to hear about your dad's and your experience while in hospital.

In the Emergency Department we book the beds with the patient flow team as soon as the decision is made to admit the patient. Unfortunately recently there has been a considerable wait for beds in the ward to become available. The nursing staff in ED do provide the care required for the patient while they are waiting for their bed in the ward but it is not an ideal environment or in the patients best interests to wait so long. We are continually working with our inpatient teams to try to improve flow from ED to the ward beds.

I hope your dad is keeping well.

Kind Regards

Jenny

Interim Lead Nurse Emergency Department

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Response from Conor Campbell, Senior Manager, Assurance and Improvement, South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust 2 years ago
Conor Campbell
Senior Manager, Assurance and Improvement,
South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust

Assurance and improvement

Submitted on 29/10/2021 at 18:24
Published on Care Opinion at 18:24


picture of Conor Campbell

Hi millimeterky36

I am very sorry to hear this story of your elderly dad’s patient journey.

In order to ensure that the relevant service leadership see, consider and respond to your story, please contact me on Conor.campbell@setrust.hscni.net or 07715801634 to tell me where exactly your dad had his inpatient stay.

If you wish to share your dad’s details with me by phone or email in order that his individual patient journey can be looked into and a personal response made (as opposed to a service level response), we will do that for you.

I hope that your dad is keeping well now.

Again, I am very sorry that your dad’s inpatient stay with us was not what it should have been and I appreciate how concerning and difficult this must have been for you.

From your story, I would hope that our response to you will be the best that it can be and that the messages from your story go forward to influence for the best possible care to be delivered to our patients.

Best wishes

Conor

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