"hospital care of my elderly mother"

My mother was treated in the Causeway Way hospital, Coleraine for fluid retention and Urinary/Kidney infection.  She was in a Medical Rehab ward after spending a number of days in each of A&E, Medical Assessment Ward and Medical Ward 1.  The number of moves appeared to make my mother  confused and disorientated.  We have found that since my mother was moved to the Rehab Ward, her treatment deteriorated.  We found that her treatment in the first 3 wards was excellent but since this supposed final move to prepare my mother for discharge we have found:-

1. She was placed in isolation as a previous ward had admitted a covid patient.

2. She lost her false teeth and despite several attempts to get guidance on how to get these replaced no-one appeared to know or could advice us on the process.

3. Her signs of infection began to return and became more obvious to us, but we continually had to ask staff to preform urine/blood tests to check for a reoccurrence of infection and only then was this discovered.  

4. She fell out of bed. We were not informed of this and only after my mother mentioned this to myself and I spoke to nursing staff was I told that this was in fact true and that she had been taken for a head CT.  On the evening visit that same day we discovered that there was also a large bruise on her stomach which we assume was caused by the fall.

5. my sister arrived for an afternoon visit. My mother was found sitting on a chair with her bare feet in a puddle of water. Milk and water was spilled all over her table.  Her night dress was wet and my sister had to change this herself as no help was forthcoming.  My mother had been left sitting with no pants or pad on.  When my mother got to her feet she wet herself as she was on medication to help remove the fluid that returned with the infections.  It would appear that her named nurse was unable to get my mother to put pants or pad on and she was left sitting.  A student nurse eventually arrived to assist with my mother using the commode. 

6. Despite my mother being moved to a single room close to the nurse's station she was left alone in her room while using a commode with the door closed. My sister had just arrived for visiting but had stayed at the nurse's station. After some time, a student nurse came to my mother's door and looked in through a window and then hurried off. My sister decided to check through the same window and could see our mother lying on the floor. At this point a number of staff arrived and put my mother back into bed.

7. When my mother was ready for discharge, she was moved to the gynae ward to wait for some medication. After some wait a nurse spoke to my sister who was with my mother. The nurse had no idea why my mother had been sent to gynae. The nurse did go the pharmacy to check on the medication only to be told that they were closing and the medication wouldn't be ready until the next day. The nurse kindly went through the prescription and between them they worked out that we had most of the medication at home.

8. The next day, on the advice of our own pharmacist, who couldn't believe that a doctor hadn't talked through the medication with us, my sister rang the rehab ward in Causeway Hospital. It was discovered after speaking to a doctor that some of the medication on the list was wrong and had to be changed.

We were at our wits end as we felt that my elderly mother in her confused state was seen as a hinderance on the rehab ward and that their lack of focus on maintaining her health set my mothers health back many days. 

Although our mother's health has improved and she is now staying with my sister, there are still some issues with the support we are receiving but we are getting by.