To make a complaint to the hospital?

What hospital is this and how are they restrained?

This is the way forward

query the Falls assessment
and there will be post fall documentation
incident form to identify learning
update of the original fall risk plan

this is where your efforts would be placed placed at this stage

I’m really sorry this happened to your dad. The staff will have filled and incident form in and it will be looked in to. If there are any faults and learning from it you will be informed as a duty of candour. Maybe check with the ward manager. I hope he’s ok. The wards need more staff but sadly the nhs is broken.

Well the article just confirms what I’ve said, really 🤷‍♀️. However I’m not involved in policy making so it’s not something I could change anyway. My experience is that some things work better here, some are worse. Most older Brits who live here and have needed medical treatment seem to feel they’ve been lucky to be here rather than under the British NHS but there’s no way to make a fair comparison, realistically. What it comes down to in the end is money - neither our public health system nor the NHS has enough of it and in any case they choose to spend it differently.

However this thread has been completely derailed for which I’m sorry, @Questionablmouse, I didn’t mean to do that. Have you spoken to anyone at the hospital about what happened to your father or started any kind of complaint procedure?

Of course he should have had someone with him. Unfortunately we, as a nation, don't provide enough funding/ staffing to keep our hospital patients safe.
The NHS is too busy employing admin workers in quality improvement projects to actually provide enough carers to do the job, which would be a far more effective way of improving quality.

Please do complain. Not just to the ward/Trust but to your MP.

How is it nanny state? It common sense to risk assess

That’s actually illegal

It is unlawful here - it’s deprivation of liberty.

Yes, well until the authorities start putting a LOT more money into that project it’s not going to change. They’re more likely to go back to open wards to allow for easier supervision and I personally far prefer the private rooms and bathrooms albeit with that issue included.

Sorry, I should have been clearer - that’s any patient, restraints or not. The dining room staff deliver and collect the meals. They do not note who has and who hasn’t eaten and the nurses are not involved in that. Unless family supervise and help I find a patient who is physically unable to feed themselves for whatever reason goes far too long without food before someone notices and does something about it as strictly it’s not part of the nurses’ job here.

You can’t just stop someone from getting up - it’s call deprivation of liberty and it would be a form of restraint. Even putting cot sides up against someone’s wishes to stop them getting out of bed is not allowed

I do remember being in hospital a few years ago and there was an elderly woman who kept on wandering and taking her clothes off and staff would have to come in and redress her and get her back to bed. She was in as had fallen at home. This went on all night. I really don’t there’s any system in place to keep people in bed, cant sedate, can’t restrain. You just have to urge them back to bed. Deal with any injuries as you go.

I feel really uncomfortable with the idea of elderly folk being restrained. I suspect the answer is more cottage hospitals set up like care homes. A bed length ways along a wall, lowered as far as it goes. Alarm systems that alert staff as soon as patients have gotten out of bed. I don’t think there is the money though.

Have a read of this research
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5251344/

Because it’s barbaric.

Because it’s not safe, it’s depriving someone of their liberty and it increases distress. It’s much better for the patient to be prescribed a light sedative to calm them down if they’re very anxious and unsettled. My DF had this when he had spent some time in intensive care following a major life saving surgery. He was extremely agitated, continually taking out his drips and catheter and trying to climb out of bed despite not being able to walk. He was given a sedative and became very calm very quickly - not so much that he was out of it, but enough to settle him and reduce his anxiety. Strapping him to a bed would have been horrific!

There are plenty of articles online about the use of bedrails and restraint in Spain and the general consensus seems to be it's overused, needs full assessments and should be reviewed by the health authorities .

Nurses highly objecting to help a restrained patient eat and drink is abuse and neglect, are relatives trained and insured to use restraints.

I'm not sure why you would refuse to believe that a different country does things differently. If the choice is between restraining a patient and them getting seriously injured falling in a country where it is expected that a family member will sit with a patient likely to have a fall then why is that so unreasonable.

Whether it's standard practice or not, if the person hasn't given consent or isn't able to, then it's unlawful without a DoLS.

If you are working in healthcare, please, please go and re-educate yourself on the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

Not unlawful here. Standard practice.

1:1 is simply not an option here, I can’t imagine it even being considered. If I were to bring it up in a meeting I’m sure I’d be asked to leave! I might suggest it just for a laugh. Restraints would be used if family can’t or won’t stay with the patient. Bedrails are used for those considered not mobile enough or unlikely to try and climb over them but who might otherwise fall out of bed. I haven’t ever seen crash mats used here.

The restraints are adjustable to an extent and only patients who are a danger to themselves and others would have them on to the point that they can’t move themselves around. In other cases, such as a patient who seemed fine in the day and had visitors then but at night would be disorientated and kept trying to get up, they were put on with enough arm movement to be able to take a drink but he wasn’t able to get out of bed. A call button is always available.

I’m not saying it’s a better system. It’s done for safety only and in the absence of other options. I have noticed that if a patient is unable to feed themselves and doesn’t have family visiting to feed them, I don’t think it even gets noticed soon enough and the nurses highly object to having to step in and help feed them.

However I haven’t seen anyone come out particularly traumatised when the use of restraints has been necessary. Pissed off, yes, but usually accepting of the reasons.

And no, I’m not a nurse. I work for a charity advocating for patients here.

They can't stop someone taking themselves to the toilet. It's just not doable without having 1-1 supervision, which is extremely restrictive and, also, unlawful without a mental capacity assessment and the full deprivation of liberty safeguards put in place. This is not the hospital's fault as long as they have completed a full risk assessment and implemented any advised interventions as a result of the risk assessment.

Please tell me you're not a nurse yourself! Bed rails should NEVER be used to restrain someone in bed. That is far more dangerous than not having them. Not too mention absolutely unlawful regardless of what the family think unless the patient has capacity to choose and has asked for them to be used.

We don't use any form of mechanical or drug restraint unless it's the only alternative to keep someone safe after full assessments and all other methods are explored, senior medical and nursing staff are involved, patients and their representatives are involved, it's used for the shortest time possible, staff must be fully trained, families are not expected to assist. How do restrained patients eat, drink, move, use the toilet, change position if they are tied up. In 25 years of general nursing I've never seen a patient restrained this way, even to use padded soft mits to stop people harming themselves needs full assessment and permission. Do you use low beds, crash mats, 1.1 nursing?

No, like normal people my colleagues and I are quite friendly out of work too. She is also a mother at my children’s school so we know each other quite well. have sent her screenshots and a link to the thread. She isn’t on Mumsnet.