Please can someone help me understand why the district nurses are saying my dad doesn't meet the criteria for a hospital bed at home?
My dad was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer three years ago. He responded well to hormone treatment until this summer when he started to deteriorate.
He was admitted to hospital 4 weeks ago as he was severely dehydrated and had gone into urine retention. He was catheterised and put on saline drip to stabilise him. Shortly after being admitted he was diagnosed with metastatic spinal cord compression which was treated with daily radiotherapy. He has also had several blood transfusions, is currently on oxygen, has greatly reduced mobility (a few days ago he was able to get off the bed with help and shuffle a few steps but his mobility varies day to day). He needs help at times to feed himself. He got bed sores recently. The matron personally apologised to mum & dad about this. His levels of opiate-based pain relief are so high he slipped into a drug-induced coma a few days ago. A doctor gave him an antidote. In spite of all this his consultant said he needs to get home and try to enjoy the time he's got left in his familiar surroundings with family. We don't know how long he has. The consultant said it is about quality not quantity.
The hospital staff say he can go home but needs a hospital bed. The district nurses should be organising this. But the DNs are saying that he doesn't fit their criteria. I have no idea what is going on. When I spoke to the DN yesterday to try to get to the bottom of things she was going on about personal healthcare budget (which as far as I know my dad doesn't have one of these). There is also an issue with him being in hospital in one London borough, but he lives in the neighbouring borough. Even though it comes under one Trust things are organised differently in my dad's borough.
The DN is offering an air mattress to go on top of an ordinary divan bed which we just don't think is a suitable option (the hospital staff also say it is a poor substitute). The DN's response is that the hosptial staff don't understand what high quality equipment the DN's can provide. The DN is saying that my dad can start with the air mattress and then be assessed to see if he needs a hospital bed. But the hospital (occupational therapists/physio) have already assessed his needs.
I wrote to my dad's local MP yesterday and the parliamentary assistant is looking into things for me, but I doubt if anything will move forward over the weekend. In the meantime I wondered if anyone has been in this situation and why are we being told that a man with terminal cancer nearing the end of his life can't have a hospital bed so he can get home?
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Life-limiting illness
District nurses saying my dad doesn't fit criteria for hospital bed at home (long)
23 replies
LadderToTheMoon · 01/11/2014 11:59
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