"Mum's care"

The actual care our 90 year old mum received in hospital was good but the communication at almost all levels was appalling.

Mum was moved from St Richards to Bognor to after being diagnosed with kidney failure and multiple myeloma, because of her age there was agreement that neither dialysis nor treatment for the cancer was a sensible option, she was very weak and the risk would outweigh the benefits.

Our issue is with the communication; mum was given the information about her cancer but the family were not told, she actually told us in a sort of vague conversation but not quite understanding what this meant or how serious this is.

When mum was discharged from St Richards the notes said that she had been sent home and because of this a doctor from the local surgery turned up at her/our home,(mum lives with us in Bognor) looking for her to discuss "end of life care"; as it was I answered the door and had to tell the doctor that mum was in hospital still.

For the last couple of weeks we have had to actively seek out information; what was going to happen next from, random people none of whom were able to give us definitive information.

We were told that a care plan was being set in place but there was no liason with us to let us know when she was coming out, what care was being given.

Basic information as to how mum was to get in if my wife and myself were at work, whether mum would just be left in the house by herself until we came home. We needed information so that we could facilitate some of her needs and plan for the near future.

We were told that a social worker was going to be involved in the care plan, we thought he/she would be the liason person but nothing was forthcoming.

We are a little jaundiced due to the fact that 2 years ago mum was in hospital for a femur operation which had to be re-operarated upon due to physiotherapy being applied before it had healed causing another fracture, she also developed a blood clot, she was discharged and the social worker signed her off a being capable of administrating her own medication without talking to us or actually finding out whether indeed she was capable.

It does seem that the system while undoubtedly " busy"is very dysfunctional and difficult from both the patients and the concerned family point of view.

There are numerous other issues that are of concern and whilst we appreciate that this is a difficult time for the health service there are errors that are simply too basic to ignore.

There is not an issue with individual staff but rather the support of the staff and liaison with those of us that use the service.

Please respond.

Thank you

Paul