My mother has been in Ayr hospital for two months, she was transferred there from the Isle of Arran because she was so ill that she needed more specialist care. She has received some excellent care but I feel that communication from the hospital to me, her next of kin and attorney, who lives in England, has been terrible.
This culminated this evening in a phone call telling me, that my mother had been discharged to the Isle of Arran, to a nursing home with no clean clothes, because the ambulance would only take one bag. When I rang back the nurse concerned had gone off duty 6 minutes later. My mother is therefore in a new environment with dementia and none of her own clothes to change into. I am far away with no way of getting her clothes from Ayr hospital to the nursing home in Arran. I was in the hospital very recently when she was supposed to be discharged and nobody told me this.
I arranged for her laundry to be done by a local lady because I live so far away and the hospital would not do it (which I feel is rather sad) this person went in yesterday to collect the dirty laundry wash it and it and return it to the hospital today to ensure that my mother had her clothes clean to be discharged with her. Nobody told the contractor that the laundry she had done would not be going with my mother.
Why was this information not given to me when I could do something about it, the staff know I live far away and was unable to come up for a second week following her delayed discharge. When they hadn't told me could they not make an exception to the one bag rule in the circumstances. It wasn't a very big bag, just a 'carry on' bag with wheels. Why is it acceptable to let an old lady spend time with no clothes and in a dressing gown because the hospital is, in my opinion, disorganised and have poor communications and the discharge is so badly effected.
What can I possibly do from here before her clothes are lost forever?
If I had not had three trips to Scotland to accompany her on previously aborted discharges I would've been there myself. Despite the assertion of the nurse that I should have been there to accompany my mother I have a job in England and have tried to accompany her on three occasions. I feel very sad at the nursing potation that it is my shortcoming that has resulted in my having to have her luggage couriered from Ayr to Arran. Anyone who has a job will know how difficult it is to get four sets of four days off from work in a three month period. I think the nurse should have been kinder and the ambulance service are real bunch of jobsworths.
"Poor Communication around my Mother's Discharge"
About: Scottish Ambulance Service / Patient Transport Service Scottish Ambulance Service Patient Transport Service EH12 9EB University Hospital Ayr University Hospital Ayr Ayr KA6 6DX
Posted by Kipper (as ),
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See more responses from Eunice Goodwin
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Update posted by Kipper (a parent/guardian) 8 years ago