"Basic Care of Toenails whilst in Queens Medical Centre Nottingham"

My elderly Diabetic (on Insulin) relative is a patient. She has been an in patient in this same hospital for a couple of months, although was sent home for a very brief period under a temporary red cross care arrangement) but had to be readmitted.

I am concerned and astonished that it seems that long term elderly patients in this hospital(especially diabetic elderly patients who cannot bend to attend to cutting their toenails are unable to have their request to Nursing Staff for their toe nails to be cut, to be actioned.

When we as relatives have requested this we have been told that we needed to contact her Gp to arrange for someone to come to do this for her. However when we did so, her Gp told us that he cannot send someone while she is an In patient in the QMC.

Obviously due to the length of time that she has been an in patient, her toenails are now extremely long and beginning to curl, and she has now been told by nursing staff on her ward that she will have to wait until she returns home to have her toenails attended to. We do not know how long it will be before she returns home. Our complaint is that surely on a ward for the elderley especially, care of patents toenails, especially elderley diabetic patients toenails, should be an essential aspect of patient care, aswell as infection control. Care of the nails is important to prevent the occurrence of pain and infection. Nails harbour debris and are potential sources of infection. Care of a patients toenails by Nursing staff should be as routine an assessment as any personal hygene care and I cannot comprehend why Nurses at the QMC say that they are unable to carry out this task. I draw your attention to an article from the nursing standard Art and Science section by RCN publishing-

Malkin B, Berridge P (2009) Guidance on maintaining personal hygiene in nail care. Nursing Standard.

23, 41, 35-38. Date of acceptance: April 16 2009.