"Treatment of Parkinson's patient in hospital"

My husband was taken into hospital with a UTI infection about 7 weeks ago now. He suffers from Parkinsons Disease so it is vitally important that he receives his medications on time.

The first few weeks in hospital I kept voicing my concerns about him getting his medications on time etc. I even contacted his Parkinsons consultant to ask his advice as the hospital said they were trying to get my husband to take his meds, but because he was sleeping all the time and not being able to co-operate they found it hard to give him his meds. The Parkinsons consultant advised them to give him a Rotigitine patch and also try and get his other meds in to him as much as they could.

He was days without any fluids or food, again I expressed my concern, eventually they did start to give him fluids by I. V. and also tried a feed tube through his nose, which unfortunately wasn't successful. All this time they were still hit and miss with his meds.

They hospital pharmacy eventually prescribed his meds in soluble form, also thank goodness he started to be able to eat normally, although very little. Things did get sorted a little better with his meds, but again there were several occasions where a dose was missed all together, or he was very late getting his meds.

I also asked what they were doing about any physio for him. I was told that when the physio came on the ward my husband was too sleepy for them to do anything with, in the end they just said he wasn't "load bearing" so not safe to get out of bed. No mention of giving him any passive physio. He is now in a 30 day recovery bed in a nearby nursing home. I am hoping that whilst he is there he will at last start having his meds on time, plus I am looking into him getting the physio he badly needs.