Private Hospital Care

[FrustratedatDawn]

My mother is in hospital in an elderly care ward in an NHS hospital. She was admitted as she had a chest infection and cellulitis. Right now she can only manage a few steps on her own with a zimmer frame whereas previously she was mostly mobile albeit with a walking stick as she has peripheral neuropathy.

She's been on the elderly care ward for 10 days and has seen the physio a total of twice although she has exercises. The nursing staff are too short staffed to provide any practical help beyond personal care.

I really don't know my way around the health care system. Has anyone any suggestions as to what we can do to speed things up to get her on her feet and back home eg private hospital care with more attention. She's only 61.

You need a rehab unit. Try asking the discharge team where they can transfer her to(might not be local and wait for a space) or if there are private ones. Alternative is discharge to home with you funding therapists and carers.

Right now, it sounds like she has an acute infection and related issues. An NHS hospital is going to be the best place for her until she is ready for discharge. Private hospitals are great if you have royal doctors or need a hip replacement or specialist care. If you need acute care, the best place is going to be the NHS. But I would say best thing you can do is to be there supporting her. Get her up and mobile, monitor her doing her physio, bring her food from home so she eats well, keep on top of staff for a plan and discharge, etc.

Which nhs trust are you under? They should have a rehab ward but they’ll have to refer her in. Alternatively they often fund 6 weeks of respite care when people leave hospital so that might cover a private nursing facility perhaps?

BUPA have convalescence homes, might be worthwhile contacting them or ask at the hospital if they know of any nearby.

NHS Glasgow and Clyde. We did ask about rehab but got sidestepped. Will try again.

I think it's going to end up being discharged with carers which she was hoping not to need.

I did have a look online but didn't see anything obvious. Maybe a call is needed.

I have peripheral neuropathy.

when I had cellulitis I was so ill I couldn’t walk at all, that wasn’t a physio problem it was that I had a serious infection problem.

as the infection went my walking got back to normal.

if she’s still acutely ill rehab isn’t the right place

Elderly ward at 61!

Yes. She was not pleased!

As an nhs worker I’d say if you aren’t happy with the plan, escalate to the ward sister/charge nurse and explain your concerns. Put it in an email and request a meeting.
on the other side of the coin patients often feel comfortable at home with a care plan but it’s usually only 3/4 shorter visits a day and it’s how she would manage inbetween times and if you feel this meets her needs etc and they can provide the right support.
I hope you can get something sorted out.

@Octavia64 could I ask how long it took you recover; was it cellulitis that affected your ability to walk?

I hope you've fully recovered. Its a miserable position to be in.

It's sounds like she's in the right place for the moment,they really won't keep her in longer than she needs to be ,they boot anyone out as soon as possible. Sounds like she can't walk due to her being ill and when she gets better hopefully she'll regain her mobility.

She shouldn't be in an elderly ward. I would kick up a fuss. She's only 61 FFS. You probably won't get her into a nursing home either at that age. Best bet would be either a private rehab hospital £££££, or discharge home with private physios.

You don't say whether she is single, or is your Dad around?

Is she doing the exercises the physio has given her ? Has she has an OT assessment? To be honest she's probably deconditioned as well as obviously being medicallyunwell (pj's paralysis really is a thing) and will start to pick up once she's home to a bit of normality.

Yeah I was on iv antibiotics once a day for three days and then as we were due to fly out to South Africa and go on safari they gave me a metric fuckload of antibiotic pills and I took them for the next week.

antibiotics make me really ill and it wasn’t the best experience but we didn’t want to lose the holiday. I use a wheelchair a lot of the time anyway.

it was probably a couple of weeks before I stopped being as weak as a weak thing and got some stamina back to do walking.

(I can’t walk far at the best of times and any infection just makes me so weak it’s hard to balance and walk. Think of yourself trying to run a marathon with the flu. Technically probably possible but you really really don’t want to).

This isn’t a helpful message. She is slightly young age wise to be in an elderly care ward but I think there are at least two very reasonable reasons to be there

1. hospitals are absolutely over run at the moment. A bed came up on a medical elderly care ward (usually considered 65+) and so at just under their usual sge range they sent her there In preference to a corridor/being an outlier on a surgical ward etc… where her care would definitely be sub par.

2. some people are physiologically older than their age either due to chronic illness or poor lifestyle. In which case she would absolutely be in the right place.

Cellulitis requiring hospital admission is a serious infection and would say you need to allow at least six weeks recovery time depending on what her baseline health is like - possibly longer if she has chronic conditions or is otherwise unfit.

I think the best thing you can be doing is working through the physio exercises with her, and as she is able encouraging her to get up and walk lengths of the ward with her. This will likely need to be built up to slowly but is really the only way to get walking again. As the old saying goes, use it or lose it, so any small movements you can encourage will hep.