who is BU? patient, hospital, local authority, family, welfare retrenchment or no one?

[TheXxed]

I am not sure what to make of this, I am not sure who's problem it is, I am not sure what the solution is but I do feel that the hospital is not the best place to deal with this.

here is the link

Did you link to the correct story? Why would an old lady with a head injury being given sandwiches that she can't eat ever be seen as the unreasonable party?

I'm sure this is the woman also in the news reusing to leave the hospital stating she has nowhere to go. Apparently the LA have offed 3 places and the offer of help if she wants go private. Daily mail link here link

I would have to say the hospital. Very afraid for elderly Dp's if they ever end up in hospital!!

Wooops wrong Link

here is the actual link

The family, is my first thoughts after reading the DM link. They don't appear to be doing much. It's the son's MOTHER ffs.

I sympathise, but she can't just live in the hospital. Hospitals are for treating people, not for long term care. She has been offered placements by the LA and the son won't take her home with him.

I agree with kinkyfuckery he is assigning responsibility to everyone but himself.

A friend of mine was once in the situation of having to serve an eviction notice on an elderly patient. Of course he was in the local press portrayed as an evil bastard.

What you didn't here was how everyone had bent over backwards to try to find a placement for the patient (who now hadn't needed to be in hospital for several months) and despite several suitable options being found, the patient and their family had turned down everyone.

There will be two sides to this, even in the Daily Mail link it's clear this lady has been well enough to leave hospital since June and the family have turned down more than one suggestion. Each day she is in hospital she is taking up a bed that is needed by someone else.

Pictures of frail elderly ladies in hospital are always emotive but we don't know the full facts here and I think it's likely the hospital has been more than reasonable having looked after this lady for 5 months more than she has needed.

She has been fit to leave since June!?

I completely understand that if you are elderly, frail and vulnerable a hospital might feel like a safe place to stay but to let a situation get this out of control is insane.

To turn down 3 accommodation offers is U.

The hospital is not being U. She hasn't needed to be there since June.

No idea who is being U between the family and the council tho. There's no way of knowing whether the offered accomodation was genuinely suitable from a few words in a news article.

Still, she cannot remain in hospital indefinitely.

I'd say the family and woman.

A hospital bed costs nearly £300 a day! She's costing the nhs a fortune for no reason. She's at higher risk of getting mrsa, etc while in hospital.

They've turned down three places already. The woman has 40k in savings, why doesn't she start spending that on a private/non council place rather than wait for the council to find a perfect place for her?

My gran had to. It's shit, but that's life.

I only skimmed the article but did notice that the son said "I can't have her because..."

I wonder if his house is that unsuitable?

If he took her in though, would she still be on the list?

The thing is that we don't really know if places were unsuitable or just not quite what they wanted.

Awful situation, but she certainly shouldn't be in hospital!

VivaleBeaver swayed me, I had no idea it cost souch for a hospital stay. She needs to take responsibility for her long term care.

Her family are being much more fussy than you can expect to be if you are not willing to pay for her care. I don't think the hospital would even be unreasonable if they were charging her to stay there, making the family supply or pay for her food and guilt tripping her about the people she is essentially denying treatment. Yes, she is old, but she is medically fit, more than the people waiting for a bed.

This is an extreme example of what was predicted to happen after the councils had their budgets cut, that the burden of care would fall to the NHS. I don't think individuals at the council are BU either as they are working with scant resources, not magic wands.

£300 a day is a conservative figure. We often have people asking to pay to stay in our specialist unit. Sometimes they will even make us a 'generous donation' which they think will enable them to stay longer (we are part charitable funded). When we tell them it's £1000 a night, they suddenly appreciate us a bit more and get a move on with picking the nursing home. Not one of the 'generous donations' has ever covered more than a weekend.

I don't think most people have a clue how much NHS care costs.

It's far more than £300 a night especially if she is in a neurorehab ward. You are looking at about £1000 per night and only 15-20 beds per large city.

What would happen if we all decided to live in hospital?

With so few beds available I think it would U for the hospital not to evict her.

Did anyone see the Children in Need sketch with Catherine Tate's nan?

Hard to say when we don't know if the accommodation offered is really unsuitable or not, but I get the impression that if it was really that bad, then the family would have had no qualms about stating what she had been offered for the article.

So with the limited amount of information we have from this article, I would say the elderly women and her family are being very unreasonable.

She is taking a bed which is needed by someone else, and has been for 5 months - I think the hospital are being very patient to give her so long TBH.

The family have been offered accommodation, they have had 5 months (longer really as they will have know it was needed before June) to find something. How long as the hospital supposed to allow a bed to be blocked?

I think it's the family and patient. Perhaps it wasn't handled that well giving the eviction notice but IME if it's reached that point the hospital will have tried everything else. I expect social work have offered to identify short term beds in placement (presumably she has refused to spend her money).in addition she's declined 3 possibilities. I wonder what she's exactly expecting them to provide for her?

I agree an acquired neuro bed will be costing £500odd a night and there will be people on other wards that cannot adequately meet their needs waiting for beds on that unit or people in the community who need their intervention.

I was having this conversation with my sister and she thinks the patient should not have to pay for her long term care as she has paid taxes through out her working life to provide for her old age.

Five months? At the £300 per night one poster quoted that's about £45k. At the £500 from another poster it's more like £75k. Meanwhile there's apparently no money for maternity services... I'd say the family are BU here.