"Doubts about standard of care"

Recently my grandmother was transferred to tippethill from St. John’s hospital whilst awaiting a package of care. 

What my family experienced when we visited her gave us serious doubts about the standard of care that left my grandmother very distressed and unhappy. 

As a retired nurse herself specialising in elder adult care she often thought she was working in the place and commented on the poor “team work”. 

When we arrived she had taken off her socks and shoes and had her thermal vest on over her jumper. It was unclear how long she had been like this . 

She has recently shown signs of hospital acquired delerium after breaking her hip in October 2017 and had occasionally wandered during the night. The splint for her hand given to her from a fall at St. John’s was in her drawer. 

She was in a room no bigger than a small double and was sharing with a frail and very obviously confused elderly lady. The room itself was clean, however it was situated far away from the nurses station and my grandmother as well as her room mate were both a high falls risk. The only attention they received from the nurses when I was there was when I had to go and speak to them as the lady had very obviously soiled herself. 

We were told after 4pm that my gran was being discharged the next day, but they were unable to tell us any details of the package of care etc. As a family of health care professionals we know that family should always be updated and included in discharge planning to enable best chance of discharge running smoothly . 

We did tell them that we should have been informed earlier and the nurse was great at alleviating our concern and did take her time to find out as much information for us prior to her going home.  The nurses themselves seemed fairly pleasant and I don’t doubt that there is fantastic care that’s carried out there , however we certainly left feeling very guilty about leaving her there and were relieved when we got her home ASAP .