Help... I want to transfer my mum to another hospital

[Baby841]

My mum has been in sheffield intensive care for nearly 3 weeks.. She got amazing care but then they decided without consulting us to transfer her and told us a few hours before doing this.. We went to visit her in the new hospital and she has been left in dirty clothes, blood on her, the bins are overflowing, the fan they gave was black with dust, we needed to put something in the bin and they told us to putt it in the yellow bin which is chemical waste only (that's the overflowing bin) I'm sure my mum hasn't used a bin full of stuff in 4 hours of her being there!! The doctors there are very rude too telling us that they know what they r doing.. I'm not doubting that but I don't feel she is getting or will be getting care that she needs... She already has a chest infection, water infection and another infection which they can't find yet so she is quite Ill... I don't know how to go about transferring her somewhere cleaner or find out why they did it in the first place without talking to us first.. Anyone out there been through a similar experience?! What do I do?

[Upsydaisymustdie]

This sounds so distressing, I'm really sorry to hear what's been happening. Could you insist on speaking to the Matron covering your mum's ward? They are specifically responsible for cleanliness, and responding to concerns, and you just might get more sense and more action from them than from either passing nurses or from doctors. PALS can help you too, by putting across your worries and helping make sure you're heard. There should be posters with the PALS details, but if not, try the hospital reception maybe?

Transferring to another hospital is possible, if you're sure things can't be made better where you are. Trust is an important part of a good recovery, so I do understand how hard your situation is. I hope either the Matron or PALS can sit down with you and talk through the reasons for the transfer, and give you some confidence in the plan to care for your mother. It is never easy leaving intensive care - it feels scary as there are less staff around and it's a whole different set-up to work out. It sounds like this was then made harder by the short notice and the lack of information. I hope you all get some sleep tonight.

[Baby841]

I will check out pals... Thanks.... She is still in intensive care unit just at a different hospital... They reckon it's better for her but all we can see is the worst ??

[Annietheacrobat]

You need to find out whether there was a medical reason for the transfer. I have seen patients being transferred in the past because they needed to use a special type of ventilator or have access to doctors who weren't based in the original hospital.

[sashh]

Agree check with pals.

The yellow bin is not chemical waste, it is medical waste. It is quite possible they have no ordinary paper bins on an ICU as anything may be contaminated and therefore treated as medical waste. I know that's the least of your problems but just wanted to give you one thing less to worry about.