"My mother's care in the Ulster Hospital"

One Monday in January,  at 4pm, my mum who had advanced dementia and was 95 years old, fell in her care home and had a suspected fracture of her right hip.  The care home called the ambulance and made mum comfortable.  At 8pm we had a video call from a paramedic who asked us questions and could see mum via video link.  This call was very reassuring given that four hours had passed and we were still waiting on an ambulance.  The paramedic was excellent and gave us an idea when an ambulance would arrive.  The ambulance arrived at half nine and by half ten mum was on her way to the Ulster Hospital. The ambulance crew were excellent and rang me 

just after 12 midnight, when mum was going to be admitted into the hospital.  This gave me time to go into the hospital with mum.  We went into a emergency room and mum was examined and given pain relief and x-rayed and by half four she was in a holding ward.  I noticed that the nurses/doctors were using a hands free phone system to contact the ward and I thought that this was an excellent innovation.  Mum was eventually moved to the fracture ward 4B the next day and I asked if she could be placed near the nurses station as she had dementia and might try to get out of bed to go to the toilet.  The nurse in charge made this happen for which I am grateful for.  I have five siblings and we were with mum everyday for a month from 10 am to 8 pm.  Here are our observations.

1. Weekend cover: We  were always worried when a weekend came around as there were always different agency staff who didn't know mum and sometimes cover was very short.  Mum needed a lot of care and often the nurses had not had time to read her notes as they were so busy. 

2. Dementia care: I was glad that we were there as a family to speak for mum.  We had to tell mum frequently were she was and what had happened to her because she had no capacity to remember.  While most nurses did tell my mum who they were and what they were in her room for, very few of the nurses reminded mum where she was and what had happened.  This must have been very confusing and scary for mum

3. Answering phones:  When mum was going to theatre for her hip operation, two weeks after she had fallen,  we were told that the operation might not happen and that the ward would ring us between 7 and 10am to let us know.  When I had heard nothing by 10am,  I phoned the ward constantly for half an hour and didn't get an answer so my husband drove me to the hospital and I went onto the ward.  The nurses and the doctor were having a meeting and I asked if mum had gone down to the theatre and they said she had gone at 8am.  I mentioned that no one had phoned me and that I hadn't got any answer to my phone calls but no one said anything.  I then asked them to phone me when mum was out of theatre and they did. 

4. Answering the buzzer:  All the rooms have buzzer which you are encouraged to press if you require a nurse.  Often it would be ten minutes before anyone came even when there were nurses just outside the door at the nurses station.

5. Food:  Mum eventually stopped eating but often food would arrive which we didn't order and which just went to waste.

6. Special mention:  We would like to mention especially a nurse on the ward called Mark. He was very empathetic and kind to us all. 

7. Thanks: We would like to thank all the staff on ward 4B who looked after my mum for four weeks before she died on the ward.  They have a very difficult job and any criticism we have mentioned in this story are just points which could be improved on.

8.  Bereavement Nurse:I received a call from a bereavement nurse shortly after mum died on the ward.  This was an unexpected but welcome phone call and I appreciated the time that the nurse took with me. I hope this will continue for other families.