"Lack of dignity for an elderly patient"

A client's elderly mother aged 96 was admitted to Whiston Hospital in Jan 2012 with a suspected broken hip.

Whilst in severe pain, she asked 3 different members of staff to go to the toilet but was ignored and an accident occurred. Patient's daughter complained that her mother was in danger of falling out of bed as the bed she was in had no sides and no covers. After several hours and many complaints later a bed was found and brought to the assessment ward.

The day after patient was admitted to Ward 3 alpha but fell out of bed the first night and cut her head.

In Feb, the patient was discharged to Sherdley Manor for 1 month.

In June, she was readmitted to Whiston Hospital at 3pm and was found a bed at 9pm. Relatives were told to ring the ward the following morning.

The family tried to do this from 8.30am-11am but with no success. Staff related to relatives that this was a common occurrence and was of some concern to them.

After assessment the patient was transferred to ward 4A and then to 5A. On several occasions the patient's notes could not be traced when needed.

When patient was admitted to hospital, there was no problem with incontinence but due to waiting time to be taken to toilet, there had been numerous accidents, hence this being noted as patient being incontinent on notes.

In late June, patient's daughter visited the ward only to find her mother was left in a compromising position after having soiled herself as no one had dealt with this or even closed the curtains around the bed. A male visitor of another patient had twice reported the incident to staff but nothing had been done to protect the patient's dignity. This was discussed with the ward manager who promised that an investigation would be made.

A meeting was arranged and patients family were given a recording of the meeting. Of each issue raised by the family an apology was given but no assurance given that changes would be made.

Are there any plans being put into place to make situations such as these a non occurrence? Every person, especially the elderly, deserves the right to be treated with some dignity. How is this being shown in this situation?