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Care Opinion

My father's long wait for a bed

Posted By M3foc

"My father's long wait for a bed"

About: Tameside General Hospital / Older people's healthcare

(as a relative),

My dad was asked to attend the Medical Admissions Unit as a matter of urgency because he was very anaemic and needed an urgent blood transfusion.

We arrived at 10.15am and as of yet, 10.00pm he is still sat in the day room waiting for a bed! He is in his 70s has bone cancer (for which he had radiotherapy just a few days ago), prostate cancer, angina and diabetes.

There is no way he can sit in a chair all night, but we're not allowed to bring him home and back again in the morning because they have ordered the blood and he'll lose his place in the queue for a bed!

This isn't how human beings should be treated, it's totally disgusting. I wonder if anyone will actually read this, or if anyone there actually really cares because reading previous comments it doesn't seem that they do.

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Responses

Response from John Goodenough, Director of Nursing, Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 11 years ago
John Goodenough
Director of Nursing,
Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Submitted on 18/07/2012 at 14:39
Published on Care Opinion at 15:14

I would like to apologise for the time delay in obtaining a bed for your father within the medical Assessment Unit. The Trust have been experiencing a high level of Emergency Admissions whereby they have been working closely with community and social care managers to identify how to jointly manage the situation. This has led recently to daily conference calls between all agencies to identify any key actions in order to assist the Trust due to the impact this is having to the existing bed capacity. The Trust have opened additional beds and provided a nursing and medical model to support these clinical areas during this time of pressure. There have also been additional intermediate care beds opened in the community in order to support and expedite patients who are currently delayed in the Acute Trust whilst waiting for this level of care bed availability.

To assist the Emergency Department and MAAU there is also a dedicated Multi-professional Integrated Discharge team who are available to assess all admissions with a view to supporting patients at home if they are clinically stable and do not require admission into an Acute Trust Hospital.

Karan Shingler

Divisional Nurse Manager

Emergency Services & Critical Care

Tameside Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Fountain Street

Ashton under Lyne

OL6 9RW

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