My adult niece has been in hospital 3 weeks following a serious RTA and major surgery. Her sister visited her the other evening and a nurse just came round and said “she can go home now”. No warning, no forward planning so her sister said “you can’t just do that, we need some notice”. She was concerned that on her own she would not be able to get her in the car and also she has a small son she had to get back to so her husband could get to work. She also lives 50 miles away from her sister! So she managed to get her to stay the next day until her partner collected her.
She spent one night at home but is now back in hospital with dizziness, chest pains, head pain, sickness etc. Paramedic came and arranged for an ambulance to readmit her.
I am not even sure she has seen a physio to be honest and she has only been sitting up in bed a few days she was flat on her back before that.
Remember when, if you had surgery, you were sent to a convalescent home or cottage hospital for a week or two to prepare you for going home, get you eating properly, moving around and recuperating.I remember my Mum really improving when she was in a local cottage hospital after she had surgery for bowel cancer. It was much quieter, she got great food to get her appetite back, she caught up with her sleep and they helped her get dressed every day and sit out and get better gradually. Sadly those days are gone and you get chucked out all times of the day and night.
I cannot believe she wasn’t assessed by professionals before being allowed home.
If that were my family I would definitely contact the consultant direct and query the decision, someone made that decision, it wasn’t the nurse she was the messenger.
I used to be ultra annoyed to have to wait 4/5 hours after I was told I could go home waiting for a discharge letter, totally unnecessary as my GP gets a copy by email, and aiting for medication again totally unnecessary as i can collect it from my local pharmacy.
Nowadays as soon as i give permission to go home i get a note of my medication and go.
When John had his pancreatectomy recently he also was in hospital 3 weeks.
I was horrified that not one time did a physiotherapist come round to get him up and moving. He was left either laid in bed or sat in chair. I told him he must get up and try walk about even if its hard to do as the gases need to be released and also to avoid developing pneumonia.
He started walking around the ward and thankfully he got stronger.
Surely the staff should have told him that? I know they are busy but a word of advice isn’t time consuming.
I’m sorry your niece is having a rotten time flower.
Because quite honestly they do not have the time. The wards are invariably understaffed that the nurses just do not have the time for more personal care, I can tell you horror stories of the times having chemo in the cancer ward and would find it difficult to blame the nures.
I remember years ago when my mum had her gall bladder op, she went away to St Osyth Priory for convalescence. Dad went there and stayed in a B&B but reckons he encountered a ghost. He said he stayed up the rest of the night chain smoking, staring out of the window.
I had a very similar experience myself a couple of weeks ago. I remember being a bit of a pain repeatedly asking the nurses if I could leave and wondering what the delay could be.
On reflection, I should have just kept quiet, gone back to lie on the bed and wait for the doctor to write the discharge letter, etc.
Nope no need your doctor will have been informed long before you drop off your discharge letter. Most of the waiting time is caused by the prescribed medication you might need. These require a member of staff to have to go down to the hospital pharmacy and wait while the prescriptions are made up and there may be a few if more than one patient is being discharged. So I just get a note of what I need and get the prescription from my GP.
