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Care Opinion

My mother was left in distress

Posted By Fizzyvimto

"My mother was left in distress"

About: Royal Alexandra Hospital / General Medicine (wards 8, 10, 11, 14, 18 & 27)

(as a relative),

Went to visit mum in ward 2 on in May at 3pm, ward very quiet lots of empty beds so nurses were not very busy at all (sitting round station with large plate of scones in front of them).

Went into see my mother who had a massive stroke and is left with no capacity to do anything for herself and to my utter horror her blanket wasn't covering her and she had no pad or pants on and her nightie was round her waist exposing her bottom half, she was obviously in a state of distress and couldn't or didn't have the ability to call for help.

Thank goodness the other 5 beds in the ward were empty so there were no other visitors to see my mum or perhaps it might of been a good thing as she could of got help sooner, what made it worse is that the nurses station was right outside her room!

I asked the nurses if there was any explanation as to why my mother had no pants or pad on and one of them said she had paper protection underneath her. I asked what good would that of done had her bowel moved to that another one said she couldn't have been like that for very long! As if that was an excuse, I said it didn't matter how long she had been like that her dignity was already gone and how would she like to be left like that.

The whole episode was totally inexcusable, it makes me wonder why they are in a 'caring' profession by the way this conversation had been with auxiliaries a staff nurse came to me and apologised and said it should never have happened, if they had held their hands up in the first place and shown some embarrassment and have been so blasé about the situation I wouldn't be writing this.

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Responses

Response from Lorna Fairlie, Patient Experience, Public Involvement Project Manager, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde 8 years ago
Lorna Fairlie
Patient Experience, Public Involvement Project Manager,
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

I work in a small team in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde which seeks to involve patients and carers in the work of the NHS. The biggest part of my role is in managing feedback projects across the Board area, one of which is Patient Opinion. It is my job to give our patients and carers the opportunity to give us feedback, and to make sure that this is passed to the right people to help us improve the services we provide.

Submitted on 15/05/2015 at 10:09
Published on Care Opinion at 11:06

Dear Fizzyvimto,

I am so sorry that this was your experience when you came to visit your mother - the privacy and dignity of all of our patients is always a priority and I am sorry that this was not afforded to your mother. I am glad that you raised this at the time of your visit, and that the staff nurse apologised to you at that time, but I accept that this should also have been the reaction of the staff members you spoke to in the first instance. I feel this would have made such a difference to you as their reaction made an upsetting situation much worse.

I hope that you have not experienced any other issues since this occasion, however if there is anything else you would like to discuss, please do not hesitate to contact me directly on lorna.gray@ggc.scot.nhs.uk.

I wish you and your mother all the best,

Lorna

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