NHS in crises - the patient

Do not assume my family experiences nor what I do for a living
Nothing obviously about it

Obviously you’ve never had a family member with dementia in hospital.

My friend whose dad was hospitalised after a fall had to sleep in a chair next to his bedside because the nursing staff said they couldn’t handle him due to his dementia.

At mealtimes my mum used to get out of bed and hobble on her broken hip to another lady’s bedside to take the cover off the plate, unwrap the cutlery and place them into her hands and then she would start to eat. This is basic dementia knowledge that everyday tasks become confusing however the nursing staff were oblivious and when Mum mentioned it their response was ‘we don’t have time to feed her’ despite that not being required. Prior to Mum’s assistance they were claiming the lady was ‘refusing to eat’ and talking of inserting a NG tube.

I've had hundreds of hospital admissions over the past 30 years and it's never been any different.

People age and get dementia, older people can get infection based dementia, or dementia due to anesthesia.

Sometimes if able the best way to stop the shouting is to talk to them and calm them down. Not easy when you are unwell yourself but easier than listening to someone be very distressed all night long.

And Ivor it's awful to admit to but yes I agree I've had some very funny memories from some of the dementia patients who have been my room mates.

I was in a similar situation a couple of years ago OP. I am sorry to say I was so bored just lying there I regarded it all as entertainment.

A lot of confused dementia patients are at high risk of falls. Ideally, they need 1:1 care. Unfortunately, there are never the staff to facilitate this.

When I was a student nurse I had a placement in a dementia ward and it was horrendous. One particular patient ended up being there for over 12 months (because the family refused to source a nursing home - they thought the NHS should pay for their family members' care, despite there being nothing medically wrong with them) and would fall multiple times a day. I remember one shift finding a lady lying on the floor with a deep laceration to her head. She had climbed out of bed, fallen and hit her head on a sink.

Incident reports were constantly being fired off, but nothing changed. Staffing could have been increased, but no, too costly. It was the most depressing placement I had and put me off ever working in elderly care.

The ironic thing, while I was there the NMC visited the ward to inspect its suitability as a good learning environment for students. On the day in question, I had never seen so many qualified and student nurses on shift, we were tripping over each other. The same thing would happen when they knew the CQC were going to visit. Overstaffed wards, which reflected a false reality of the day-to-day working environment.

As a student, I was asked to speak to the NMC and give my views. I told them the truth, that the ward was massively understaffed, compromising student training and patient care. Nevertheless, they still approved the ward to continue having students. That was my first realisation that the NHS was badly run and completely corrupt.

Dh had this he was in for surgery and the poor chap next door has no idea where he was or why and was up all night. Had to have a nurse sat with him all night. It seems so unfair on him and the other people trying to recover.

It sounds like you have received excellent life saving (and expensive) care which very few people in the world are privileged to receive!

Yet you are complaining it's not restful & relaxing & the lesser patients with dementia are allowed in.

Hospital treatment is there to save your life not for quiet rest & relaxation. You can do that when you get home.

Fortunately I had a better experience.

I was in an and e a few weeks ago and treated well. I did have to wait, but understood the stroke and heart patients around took priority.

I then had an op the next day and already have had follow up appointments arranged including physio.

So it can work and I was thankful for the service I got from ambulance onwards.

It's bloody awful being stuck in a ward with someone like that. My grandad was next to a guy who had dementia and was really quite aggressive. I found him very scary indeed. If I'd been on a ward with someone like that guy I'd have been scared to go to sleep in case he attacked me. Surely this shouldn't be happening

I wouldn’t call them vipers - they’re simply pointing out that you say that the NHS is in crisis yet in the same breath want them to magically find a private room for this woman. It makes no sense and is hypocritical

I’ve been the patient beside the upset, elderly, confused patient with dementia and it is awful, especially in terms of your rest & recovery but there’s nothing that you can do about it. Hospitals are just like that

Seriously? In what way? I’m in bed immobile with very serious, life changing injuries and the woman in the bed opposite was very distressed, wondering what she was doing there, and every hour or so would get up, rip out her cannula and state she was off to find her (long dead) husband. It was only me witnessing this. It was me endlessly buzzing the nurses in the hope that someone would come and address the situation,

would the staff be allowed to leave such a patient alone in a ward? I would hope not. It was very distressing for both me and the elderly patient.

I often say to patients that hospital is the best place to be because you are ill, but it's also the worst place!

Our hospital does have dementia wards as well as geriatric wards (I work on complex geriatric).

However if the main reason the dementia patient is in is due to another medical reason - surgery/cardiac/renal then they need to be on that specialist unit.

We have a lot of patients that are medically optimised for discharge, it can be a long wait for a suitable placement. Social care is broken tbh, more so than the NHS IMO. And a long wait for care results in a long wait for inpatient beds on wards that are more suited to dementia/delirium etc. Fixing social care would go a long way towards sorting the NHS.

Speak to the nurse in charge, put white noise/radio through earphones on a night and ask for your curtains to be kept closed.

Hope you feel better soon.

My DM died recently. Her last few hours were her screaming in pain on a ward as there was no available side room.

On the ward were several awake patients in bed with visitors and one lady perched on the end of her bed waiting for her discharge medication. We pulled the curtain, but I could see their discomfort- like they were intruding, while I did what I could to get her moved. Those were her last moments of consciousness and I feel really frightened for any other family members that need to igo in. I’ve had several close family die and can see a big change in the NHS in the ten years since previous family members went into hospital .

I don't think this is a failure of the NHS, just the reality of healthcare.

I'm in Sweden and was recently in hospital. We don't have open wards like I experienced in the UK. It's all rooms off a corridor with capacity for 2 beds. The staffing level was excellent. But there was a lady with dementia, on her own, in a room further down the corridor. She still managed to keep the entire ward awake throughout the night. Staff were constantly responding to her and closing doors to all the other rooms to try and keep the noise out. But she was so loud.

I was so tired and in so much pain, but all I could do was sympathise as she was in a similar situation but was obviously very, very frightened.

I think you should turn things round and express gratitude that you live in a country where you have been provided with medical care that has saved your life, not dependent on your ability to pay.

Hi, nurse here!
I have worked on an acute medical ward for the last 10 years.

I understand that patients with dementia can be loud and disruptive, however to isolate them due to dementia would not be fair on them either. Generally if someone so disorientated and shouting out they need to be in an observable bay. Obviously this disrupts other patients but we unfortunately have to prioritise safety over comfort at times - this being one of them.

Side rooms are a rare gem. I work on a ward with isolation and we have a lot of single rooms however these are always full or people needing isolation for infection reasons - or those on chemotherapy who need protecting from other patients.

We do also have dementia training - it's standard and everyone receives it. You can then go on to do more in depth dementia training. However, to implement some of the things to benefit a patient with dementia we would need more staff than we have.

There are currently too many managers in hospitals being paid a lot of money to make decisions, which means the ward staff don't have the budget to employ hands on people.

I think hospitals should not been seen as a place to relax and rest. They are a place to be medically treated, then you get discharged home to rest and recover.

Hope some of this helps explain things

Monstersunderthesea, ignorant.

Even patients with septic shock requiring ICU admission can turn around very quickly with appropriate antibiotics.

It was not viperish - maybe poster has cared for patients with sepsis who are unable to post thoughts on the NHS...
Poster wasn't the only one to think this - and it is not viperish to ask a genuine question

Not just dementia, delirium is a common problem in hospital patients particularly when they are older.

At every hospital I’ve ever worked in,
private rooms have been for patients with infectious symptoms like diarrhoea, those with known multi-resistant organisms on their skin, or patients who are palliated and have their family with them.

It's very common sadly to be near an elderly person in distress. The private rooms will be allocated to people with serious infections, or sometimes people with the police with them.
Definitely order some decent ear plugs. It's horrible, I know. You could ask for some sleeping meds if that might help?

Dear god, where do you get such ideas from?
One of the most ridiculous postings ever.