Elderly a and E patients

[Plumplum1]

Was recently in an and e sat in a seated area called fit to sit. There was a lady with a suspected broken arm as she had fallen. She was cold and had managed to pull the blanket off the table only. so I offered to help her put it on and tucked her in. She looked confused too as she was exhausted and it was 3 in the morning she said to the nurse she had no one. There was also a man in a bed who had dropped his pillow as I was on my way to do a pee sample. I picked it up for him and he wanted a chat to see what time it was etc. I know nurses are over run and busy but I feel so sorry for all these patients who have no one to help them many had a family member with them or where young enough to not need help. I was in a lot of pain when I went in but they gave me morphine and tramadol and Iive near the hospital so actually did consider helping the lady and getting her a cup of tea etc or possibly coming back in the morning if she needed help but they wheeled her off and she didn’t come back before I had to leave.

It is a problem. There simply are too many patients and not enough staff.
The 'safe' numbers from management are based on old attendance figures , and the wards are the same.
I don't want to get into a debate about it but this is one of the reasons nurses are striking.
We have volunteers in our department who are a great help , although they don't come at night.

I agree staff are over run. I feel like volunteering at a and e now

Helping others is great but no food or drink sadly in case they need a general anaesthetic.

As pp said, many patients are nil by mouth.

I'm sure that would be very much appreciated, ours are fabulous.

I do some volunteering for a mid 70s age woman, "Ann". She had a funny turn yesterday & I sat & chatted with her for a while. Ann mentioned how her daughter, lives almost 2hrs drive away, wants her (Ann) to move closer. "But it's too much upheaval". Ann is stand offish, she doesn't have friends locally. OMG, I'm not very sympathetic, she could well end up in hospital with no one to visit. Just move closer. get removal firm in to pack it all, just do it.

Great display of empathy there!
Ann may well have lived in that area all her life.
Moving is a daunting prospect for someone who is not alone, let alone an elderly woman on her own!
Indeed you are not very sympathetic!

Nope, Ann moved here ~25 years ago after her husband lost money, they had to downsize & our area was a fairly random choice where they could afford that kind of house. Husband died soon after she moved here. She seems to have no local friends, no roots here at all, she raised her kids about 100 miles away.

Her house is in good repair, would sell quickly. Has many popular features Ann doesn't use.

It's because she ends up waiting for doctor at home feeling very poorly, with a random volunteer she barely knows, no one else to help, that I have compassion, she needs to be closer to her family. Ann needs to bite that fear-of-change bullet. I'd offer to help pack or sort, but Ann is both anxious & proud, struggles to accept help.

I do feel bad that I only stopped indoors with Ann for 20 minutes or so yesterday, Ann won't admit it but she was much comforted by having me there. I had to get to work, though.

My neighbour lost husband 15m ago & is thinking of moving closer to her grandkids, a mere 15 miles away. Neighbour lives alone in 4 bedr house, has a whole community of most-life friends & memories she'd leave behind in our area, that's a tougher change but I think she's moving towards it.