"Lack of accountability"

Relative was between ward 23 and 24 for his 4 week stay. He suffered with congestive heart failure and stage 4 kidney disease. 

His treatment was very poor whilst at kings mill. Whilst in EAU he received good assessments by the medical team in regards to what treatment he would require, treatment on the wards lacked both accountability and management. His cannula site became infected and the medical team disregarded this whilst on ward 24 and informed us the site of infection was from his cellulitis. We were informed that his legs needed to be left uncovered (as instructed by tissue viability) however once they had discovered he had sepsis they then dressed his legs. 

He was treated with IV antibiotics for sepsis however the infection resulted in his IV diuretics to stop working and his fluid retention reached a plateau. During this he developed a UTI, a catheter was inserted however removed as was bypassing and staff did not get necessary staff from urology to make decision of removing catheter. 

Told by medical team he was to be placed on fast track and had less than 3 months to live. Discharge process poor as we were informed over weekend that fluid had reduced and possibility of treatment being successful, on the Tuesday a discharge nurse discussed options for discharge and the process however ward staff did not appear to have same concerns regarding him getting out of bed at home and being unable to tolerate lying in a bed for the night. My family felt pressured by some of the ward staff to decide on a discharge destination. We had decided on the Friday that he would be safer to be discharged to a nursing home to assess how settled he is with the intention of him coming home if this was the case. 

No communication from staff regarding him reaching end of life stage, he died on the Saturday - they informed us in good time and the nurse looking after him that morning was lovely. 

Generally the care has been poor. There was a lack of communication. Very slow at recognising infection and implementing treatment, I understood that he was in the last stages of his life but it is unlikely he would have died during the admission if he wouldn't have developed sepsis. 

Medical staff should be honest about sepsis with patients and families, they have the right to know. There is such a lack of accountability and honesty about what is happening. It is questionable why the sepsis statistics have reduced and how genuine these statistics are.