History repeating itself.

We are having a terrible time of things at the moment and I am so cross with the NHS (the part of it that is causing us a problem) This is an exact re-run of a situation that happened three years ago when mum broke her femur for the first time. 

Recently mum was admitted to hospital initially to have a knee replacement, before that could happen she contracted a urine infection, so she was transferred to The Lister hospital in Stevenage where she received in patient treatment for that infection. While she was there she was assaulted by one of the nurses who seemed to think that she should not have wet the bed, despite having an infection and no one answering her call bell. The other patients in the bay reported that she was slapped and left exposed on the bed, one of those patients got up with a broken leg and went over to cover her up. I am so angry with how she has been treated. I reported the incident to the Matron and to this date we have heard absolutely nothing, not a letter , not a phone call, NOTHING. We are not living in a third world country, this is 2013 in Great Britain. Mum was frightened to say anything because she had to stay in hospital there so declined Police involvement despite the hospital calling in the Police. If I had been there I would have ensured that action would have been taken, but I was not.

She was transferred to the Queen Elizabeth the 2nd hospital in Welwyn Garden City where she subsequently had her knee replacement. She recovered well from that until last Thursday when in the care of the Hospital she fell and fractured her ankle and femur (again) She has been in considerable pain and initially fell foul of the weekend intervening because as we all know no one becomes ill at the weekend the NHS simply shuts down and goes to skeleton staffing, so she had to wait until Monday for an operation. We then started to be told that she had a complicated fracture and she would need a specialist surgeon to deal with it, She was Xrayed and waited. Tuesday morning they decided to operate and when she was seen by the anaesthetist they called the operation off. The bloods were wrong and she needed several transfusions to build her up. That was done straight away. We have no complaints about that the operation needs to be as safe as possible, we were not seeking to force them to carry out the operation unsafely.

What truly ticks me off is the lies that were trotted out to us we have been told that there hasn't been a surgeon available because of the complicated nature of the operation, so how did that anaesthetist call off an operation where there was no surgeon?? We were told she would be transferred to a specialist hospital, then they couldn't go ahead because they didn't have a clear X-ray, apparently it had been asked for but no one had taken her there!!! You can see the X-ray department from her bed, I could have pushed her there myself. 

We asked when the operation would happen, we were given more half truths (if I am being generous) downright lies. we have had every excuse that they could muster while quite clearly no one knew what was going on!! They couldn't even tell us which consultant was dealing. 

Throughout all of this Mum has been sat in bed drugged up to the eyeballs in a great amount of pain. She is mentally and physically going down hill and we are seriously concerned for her. 

The very best crap excuse that they have come up with is that the surgeons can not operate because they have lists full of elective surgeries!!!! If they don't operate on those people they will breach the 18 week rule and the hospital will be fined!!! I can not believe that they can use such a crap excuse to keep a 77 year old woman in this position.

This morning I phoned the hospital and had a very full and frank discussion with them, I also contacted PALS and my MP. this has started to get results. Mum is deaf in both ears and while in hospital she has lost both hearing aids, these are the tiny in the ear aids which cost £1500 each. We have them insured, but the insurance company need a letter from the hospital to say that we have reported it to them. I asked for that letter nearly five weeks ago, five weeks where Mum has not been able to hear properly, five weeks where she has not understood what is being said to her. I have chased up this letter , an incident report, because I am pretty sure they were thrown away by staff changing the bed. on a weekly basis, it has not been forth coming. How dare they leave her essentially deaf because they can't be arsed???

Her operation is supposed to happen tomorrow and they have told us that the surgeon dealing is Mr Harishbhai Parmar. He looks to have a good track record, so I hope he has a good nights sleep and that he is able to repair the damage.

Please say a prayer and spread this message, people should be made aware of how the NHS treat our elderly vulnerable people, IT IS DISGUSTING.