this is very poor 80 year old discharged from hospital ( catheta imparied movement) with supposed support care and has had nothing?

[Humidseptember]

So, can anyone tell me what to do> I don't live close by, and he has come out of hospital with the supposed proviso that he gets 8 weeks of care including personal care - cleaning etc, social services....and has had nothing?

A nurse came in yesterday and said its awful and spent two hours phoning round and said - he needs to call the ward that discharged him>

He has severe mobility issues, catheter etc....cant clean has meals on wheels but needs shopping done, etc....he was in hospital for heart failure and other stuff that went wrong = he has a catheter until they put a camera in the bladder - as they damaged him in hospital and now he is at home with it!!

what can I do!! who do I call?

[HelenaDove]

that is severe neglect on their part.

[awkward91]

Call your local social services - they should have a rapid response team/urgent care service which basically has to see people within 24 hours of them being referred. If it'll take awhile to get him home care it may be best to see if they can sort emergency respire at a care home in the interim. The ward definitely should be contacted to as they shouldn't have allowed him to be discharged without confirming that his home care would be unplaced.

[awkward91]

*in place

[HappyHeart87]

Are you in the UK? Go online to the local authority website for his area and find the number for the Adult Safeguarding Team. Call them and explain he's vulnerable and you believe him to be at risk of immediate harm, and ask them to do an emergency visit.

[Imnotaslimjim]

Please get in touch with his local Social Services, this is a horrific failing on the hospitals part. I don't blame them, they're so underfunded and overworked these days they likely don't even realise that he has been left without care.

The catheter, as long as he can empty the bag himself, isn't a big deal. If there is any problems with it blocking etc, the district nurse will come out and deal with it. He does need to get a care package in place but not a lot of care packages have domestic cover these days.

[strugglingttodecide]

This happened to my dad. He should not have been discharged in those circumstances. A catheter will impede his mobility further. There should also be a plan to deal with the bladder issue but I had to chase and chase for an appointment. The longer a catheter is in, the greater the risk of future incontinence.Catheters can also cause infection. Who is emptying the bags?Complain to PALS (patient advisory liaison services) at the hospital and ask for an explanation as to why he was discharged without a care plan and demand something be done. It worked for us. Good luck

[Humidseptember]

Yes we are in the UK but I am down south he is up north.

He said he was given some sort of list with cleaners and so on - and he has spent an hour each morning ploughing thru it but many numbers not recognized or no one called him back, he said he then saw the date and it was made in 2013

My dad said there was a discharge person at the hosptial who was supposed to set it up, he complained to PALS but the numbers he was given by them, are not relevant.

My other worry is - I have heard that catheters can cause infection esp as he already has impaired mobility re cleaning himself...and can lead to delirium?

[Humidseptember]

I am not sure how well he can empty it - his hands are pretty closed up now, he cant bend down, cant walk far or fast...

[Humidseptember]

Thanks Happy will try and do that!

[JellyBelli]

Call his MP and the press!
Good job he has you.

[Wolpertinger]

Simplest version - he can't look after himself, he calls 999 and goes back to hospital.

That's a fucking awful discharge and chances of getting everything he needs in place set up at this time of night with the weekend coming up are zilch.

Absolute best version - Safeguarding Team from local Social Services sort something, probably emergency respite in a care home.

Still shit.

Personally I prefer the first version because the hospital get penalised for their failed discharge and have to clear up their own mess rather than getting other people to do the shit work for them but I appreciate it isn't fair on your relative.

[Humidseptember]

I have not been able to help him recently but am now free to start calling on Monday to find out what the hell has been going on.

Whichever nurse came today has obv been shocked as he said she was there on the phone for hours - trying to sort this mess out, she called SS and other people.

But I want to follow up too.....

[Humidseptember]

Just to be clear he was discharged about two weeks ago maybe slightly longer with this catheta with the promise of the camera in the bladder to discover the issue.
he went into hospital with one issue and they struggled one night to insert catheter and he had blood clots.
they had to drain this for days with enormous amounts of fluid from a drip or it was "theater" the doctor said,

they cleared the clots but then he wasn't able to go to the loo ....so they discharged him with the catheter whilst waiting for camera.

[SummerSazz]

You poor thing (and him) :(

79yr old DF was due to be released from hospital but refused as insufficient care in place. Dm refused to have him home.he then spent 9 days in hospital bed blocking as everything passed from pillar to post - incredibly frustrating and the right person could have made the call in day 2.

He was finally assessed on hospital and then discharged to a care home. Previously the best help we got at home was from the district nurse who assessed him and did a care plan.

Initially (previous to hospital)we were trying to put care in place ourselves but struggled with availability like you. Social services did wield some influence here with the care providers.

My sympathies and I hope you get help soon.

[newshmoo74]

I run a home care service, we often take people at short notice on discharge from hospital. It's standard practice for people with support needs to be provided with a certain number of weeks care when they leave hospital. The hospital should not have discharged him without making sure this was in place. I second the advice to call his local safeguarding team.

[Humidseptember]

Thank you summer.

He wont go into a care home, but has not been offered one either.

[Humidseptember]

Thank you New, I guess these services are googleable?

[Lunde]

This is terrible!

Need to call his local social services NOW and get them to send out a team to assess and organise short term, emergency care over the weekend. That he has a catheter is worrying as it needs monitoring for infection and emptying - who knows whether any nursing visits have been booked for the weekend?

Could also call the hospital/ward where he was discharged and get the name and organisation responsible for his home care package

[Humidseptember]

he has been out for at least two weeks and to begin with no nursers areas he was calling had any idea who he was or what to do.

[Humidseptember]

I think I wil start with the ward tomorrow or Monday and go from there, try all the other places

[MindSweeper]

The complex discharge team should have sorted all this out for him and he should have a social worker at the hospital, I would be ringing the ward NOW and getting an idea as to what the hell is going on.

A package of care should have been put in place as well as meals on wheels or he should have been given a stepdown bed somewhere.

Catheters can lead to infection but many people live with long term catheters and to be honest if he's immobile and can't get to the toilet then it's probably the best, much better than lying in urine. It sounds like he's in urinary retention which can be painful and THAT can cause delirium so it's catch 22.

By the way there's nothing here to suggest that the catheter issue was caused by them, so I would get more info on that. We don't cath on a whim so there would have been an initial reason why he needed it, and if there was difficulty getting it in it could be for pre-exisiting problems like an enlarged prostate. But obviously time will tell when he has the camera.

I hope you manage to get things sorted, I'm disgusted he's been left with no-one to help

[Humidseptember]

he was rushed into hospital (and had a heart failure leaflet by his bed) had enlarged stomach which was drained, and this caused issue with breathing. I imagine all of that combined with his arthritis and general mobility issues they had to put catheter in. he said one night they were taking ages to do it and after that came blood clots.

which they spent days flushing out.

[Humidseptember]

mind in some respects I agree with the long term catheta but how does one do poo with it?

[MindSweeper]

I'm sorry humid I don't know what you mean. You would poo as normal.

[TheBouquets]

This is a total disgrace. Poor old man. It is awful the way hospital just fire people out the door without sorting out social services and other services for the poor soul.
Try to google his local authority and get on to his social work office. The social work in your area should be able to take your concerns and they could contact the old man's social work office.
How distressing for you as well as the old man.