bed blockers adding to the lack of hospital beds

[newcovidisolations]

My mum was medically discharged to leave hospital into rehab (following a stroke) well over a month ago but due to no rehab beds being available she is still taking a hospital bed from someone who needs to be admitted from a&e. She has now tested positive for covid and despite no symptoms at all is now taking a private room on the ward for 7 days as they insist she isolates.

Over 3 weeks ago I rang every private rehab within 50 miles and none could assess her to see if she could transfer until 5th Jan. Despite fees of over £2k per week with extra charges for all physio.

She could possibly have regained mobility with daily physio in rehab had she been discharged weeks ago whereas now she could have far more care needs for the rest of her life.

The system appears broken to me and could affect any one of us and I cant understand the lack of protests. Any of us could need the hospital bed not just the elderly. Her ward is not just used for strokes.

I work at a council run rehabilitation unit. The majority of patients stay for around 3 weeks before they're well enough to go home (or residential care). However there is a noticeable minority who treat the place like a hotel. Eg,, staying in bed all morning, watching TV all day in their rooms, Refusing to join in group exercise classes. Socialising with their visitors for hours on end. Also there are other patients who are ready to go home but are very reluctant to leave. Most likely as they get 3 free meals and company and attention. Which is understandable if they're lonely at home

Same happened with my dm in Oct 2021. She had lots of rehab in hospital then once she was ready for discharge they just left her in bed/in a chair all day nobody even talked to her except when they brought meds/drinks/food.

She needed carers at home. Eventually carers became available. Should've had them for 6 weeks but it was nearer 12 because nobody noticed & stopped them & we just thought it was being extended.

When they were stopped it happened just like that. They came at breakfast time & then we had a call to say no more help available. At all.

It's so tough for them and for us.

I wish you and your dm all the best op. Xxx

We’ve been in a similar situation. We were told that social services have beds ring-fenced in care homes for this situation. Ie. Patients who are medically fit to leave hospital, but their home situation is suitable until carers cover can be organised. Took a week for my relative to be discharged.

For my aunts we managed to get rehab at home as our house was large enough to support it. But the delay in arranging it meant they both permanently lost their mobility

If you've been unwell enough to spend significant time in hospital and require rehabilitation before you can be discharged home, it can be frightening to go home without the support and safety net in hospital. The whole experience highlights to people how vulnerable they are and how easily their independence can be ripped away - the prospect of relapsing or falling at home and nobody finding them.

The solution to that is meeting people's needs and supporting with the transition, not putting them down and demeaning them.

It's sad you claim to work with people in that position and yet have so little understanding or compassion.

People are living too long now

What's too long?

Our rehab unit was closed down a few years ago. It was ever so good for getting elderly people moving again before they got home.
Same as the walk in medical centre, the Tories closed that down too.

Johnson stood on the steps of Downing Street in 2019 and promised to fix the crisis in social care “once and for all" and said there was a “clear plan we have prepared,” and years later that plan is nowhere to be seen.

@megletthesecond Yes, there was a mass closure of walk-ins a few years ago. Such a short-sighted move because they were vital in keeping A and E departments under control to a certain extent

Exactly! It seems okay to allude to euthanasia or just allowing people to die on these discussions. Yet I get accused of being uncaring when I bring to attention people misusing the rehabilitation unit

The patients you mentioned not reaching their buzzers, needing help to eat - really family should help with that

What happens to those with no family?

My neighbour has sadly outlived his daughter, and most of his friends.

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain i agree, I meant to refer to you on my previous comment

In some regards, the Tories had no choice, these cottage hospitals etc have no staff, so they can't be run = close down.

We can't get more staff (pay them more) because we keep voting for low taxes and we voted for Brexit which led to large numbers of EU workers leaving the UK, across all sectors, so now care workers can easily get better paid work (and rightly so)

Fundamentally, whilst all of europe has these problems ours are worse because of how we vote.

We need to see some mass demonstrations for both our NHS and Educational systems.

And yes, people need to STOP VOTING TORY! 🤬😤

Lack of funding is a very large part of our present NHS funding . That is lack of funding for social services not lack of funding for the NHS.
as Social services don’t have enough money to pay for onward beds or care for the elderly ready to leave hospital then patients in a/e can’t move into one of those blocked beds . Consequently the ambulances waiting outside A/E can’t move their patients into A/E and so are stopped from going to attend urgent 999 calls .
Our local hospital has approximately 400 beds of which 150 can be occupied by patients waiting further social care . Most hospitals are in the same position.
my DD has a friend at uni training to be a paramedic . She has just thrown in the towel and left her course because when on nightshift she has constantly been stuck outside A/E for up to 12 hours waiting to get her patient into A/E .
The system is not working , and the first part of solving the problem is to throw a lot more money Social Services for Elderly Care . This would free up a third of hospital beds , which would then free up A/E beds , which would then free up ambulances .

A lot of money was also promised to the NHS by the Tories if people voted brexit. Fucking morons.

This is a big part of the equation . These people need care locally where family can visit and even help . I tried to get my mum back to her flat with live in care which I helped arrange through her current care company but was refused and the council said she had to go into a care home with the correct equipment . Then I had to fight to get somewhere local so the family could be considered as essential care givers . All this took time and in between she was in hospital and sorry to say the care was not great . Everything was a fight , very complicated . But it is not a black and white answer . More carers are needed but as far as the nhs is concerned there is plenty of money going in but the NHS a managers won’t change even if we have a new government. Cottage hospitals still need staff . And we probably need a radical re-think about local housing for the elderly . My parents were in assisted care for a while and local to us which meant we could help every day. . But at the moment the situation is dire and care at home is very difficult to get but that surely should be tackled first ? Is is purely about the money or working conditions or both ? Perhaps some carers could tell us how it can be resolved ?

This is nothing to do with OPs mum to be clear just in response to some posters:

It's been a bit clumsily mentioned in previous posts but the reality is that people are living longer, often being operated on and on a cocktail of meds with a very low quality of life just because modern medicine can. It's not good for the individual, and being blunt its not sustainable for the health service (not just the NHS, but in reality most if not all would struggle with such a top heavy population), until these conversations are had even with huge investment and influx of staff it will still render the NHS unsustainable. There should be a cohesive health and social care model, the tories won't as it'll cost a lot of money to entice people into care. Its not about euthanasia it's about reality and not just prolonging life because technically medicine and machines can.

We can't get more staff (pay them more) because we keep voting for low taxes and we voted for Brexit which led to large numbers of EU workers leaving the UK, across all sectors, so now care workers can easily get better paid work (and rightly so)

So, nothing to do with Tories then?! 🙈🙈🙈

I real terms more money has been put into the nhs even taking into account inflation , a lot more money. Some was wasted on the track and trace fiasco . But it’s not all abut funding . It’s about managing the funds as well .

Is is purely about the money or working conditions or both ? Perhaps some carers could tell us how it can be resolved ?

Would you work in a care home (shift work, very challenging both physically and emotionally) for minimum wage or just above? Added to the mix would you want to if you knew every shift would be short staffed so you'd be attempting to do the job of another person and you knew you couldn't provide the level of care you needed? I suspect many people know the answer, the government certainly does and yet hasn't done anything to address the sharply rising increase in demand.

Compared to 2016, adjusted for inflation, this year the NHS has an extra £752 million pouring into it every single week.

Yes but things are more expensive than they were in yesteryear. An MRI machine for example, a very useful piece of equipment but costs a tonne to buy and run. Same story for a lot of the technology and medicines we now have, even in the past decade there have been huge advances which do make life better for patients but come with a price tag. Inflation has also soared and in general terms the cost of living keeps creeping up even prior to the current crisis. An increase in investment isn't always indicative of whether its being funded to an appropriate extent for the demand. What funds are you saying aren't being managed appropriately? On a trust level there's a very very tight reign on spending.

Yeah. Brexit costs 40 billion a year in lost revenue.
www.itv.com/news/2022-12-20/brexit-costs-government-40-billion-a-year-in-lost-tax-revenue

Family are not allowed! Especially after covid but even before that visiting is extremely limited and frequently not allowed during meal times . That’s for good reasons - some visitors will distract a patient from eating - but leaves patients who can’t feed themselves helpless.

At the very least the NHS needs to introduce a system where people who aren’t competant can have someone staying with them in the same way a child can. We would never expect a two year old to stay on a ward alone most of a day.