After being taken to A & E with a suspected stroke, my father was left on a trolley for approx 5 hours. It was only when I complained that things started to move. He then had a CT scan, a stroke was confirmed and a bed was found on the stroke ward. He was on the stroke ward for approximately 3 days (when I asked the doctor what stroke treatment my father had been given I was told "aspirin" - not very inspiring) before being moved to a general medical ward, he then remained in bed for another 2 weeks before being discharged back to his residential care home.
Whilst on the stroke ward he was treated for a chest/urine infection - they were not sure which type of infection he had. He is now paralysed down the left hand side and requires help with pretty much everything, before he went into hospital he was still mobile although is suffering from severe dementia. He received no rehabilitation and I felt he was generally ignored during his time there, when I asked why they had not got him out of bed they felt it would be unsafe as he would fall to one side. Now he is back in the residential care home, he is sitting in a chair, albeit with a pillow to support him.
If felt as if the hospital just couldn't be bothered to invest the time he required. I experienced a nurse test his bloods without speaking to him to tell him what she was doing, no eye contact, no mention of his name, no smile - nothing. In my opinion, their understanding of how to deal with a dementia patient was woefully inadequate.
As his advocate, I asked the staff on many occasions to be consulted about the decisions that were being made around his care, but these requests were ignored, any information I received was due to the fact that I phoned in and asked how he was getting on, they did not contact me once.
"No rehabilitation after my father's stroke"
About: Princess Alexandra Hospital / General medicine Princess Alexandra Hospital General medicine CM20 1QX
Posted by Itsnotaboutme (as ),
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